


Feathers of light

by Irisinally



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, DGM Big Bang 2018, Fantasy, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Humor, M/M, angel!Allen, lavi is still a pinning idiot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-05 10:52:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15862158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irisinally/pseuds/Irisinally
Summary: Shooting stars are said to be angel tears, pure light that falls down from the night sky.Sometimes, one of them would have a mission, they would fall with those tears and they would ally themselves with a human, someone that would guide them and aid them while they stayed on Earth.It was a really important role, a role that Lavi didn’t imagine he would have some day.





	1. First Star

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my entry for the DGM Big Bang! It was really fun and I hope you like it!  
> Art done by the amazing @yshoulditellu: https://yshoulditellu.tumblr.com/post/177628294121/

_I am the wind, I am the light_

_The gold, shimmering, leads my path_

_Until I can see you again,_

_My feathers will shine for you_

_…_

_I love you._

_  
_

* * *

 

There was a legend, an ancient story, that had passed from generation to generation. A legend that talked of hope, of light, of love, a story that small children always asked to be told just before they went to sleep. It followed them into their dreams, filling them with warmth and making them smile.

It was a legend that Lavi wasn’t really fond of, but he still knew the short story by heart, and he was reminded of it at least once a year, when part of the legend became true.

_“For thousands of years, once a year, the night sky is crossed by millions of shooting stars.”_

That day was one of those times, as he carried the boxes from his car to his house, eye threatening to fall closed and sleep creeping up to him by the second.

 _“Those shooting stars are angel tears._ Why do they cry? _Because they care about us, they protect us, and their tears are a present, a beautiful present made from light and hope.”_

He kicked his door open and he tried to find the switch with his elbow, hitting the wall multiple times with it, the objects in the box chiming and only making his headache worse. He thanked the angels when he managed to turn on the light.

_“The angels are our guardians. They live in Heaven and they have beautiful big wings that are made of light and clouds. And, most importantly, they sometimes come to Earth.”_

He left all the boxes on the living room, hidden behind his sofa, in an attempt to ignore their existence, and he yawned again, stumbling into the kitchen. He needed to eat something before he collapsed on his bed and, hopefully, passed out for an entire day. That way he could avoid his grandfather’s calls and even annoy him.

He had made sure that the old man didn’t have keys to his house. And he couldn’t pick his lock, either, because he wasn’t that amateur Alchemist anymore. He was sure that Gramps would be proud, if he wasn’t that annoyed with him.

_“They come to Earth to do a mission, something that only they know. Sometimes it takes them days, sometimes months, sometimes years. But they aren’t alone.”_

He didn’t really remember what he had in his fridge, to be honest. A lot of the food would be expired, he mused. Probably.

He squinted at the light when he opened the door and took the first thing he laid his eye on, which turned out to be a salad. He left it on the kitchen counter, closing the fridge with a kick. It wasn’t as agile as he’d expected and he almost face-planted on the floor, but he managed to brace himself against the counter.

_“The angels have a guide, a human that will help them through their mission. They will confide in one another and, at the end of the mission, the angel will grant the human a wish.”_

Lavi was tempted to just lie down on the sofa, eating the salad that was, surprisingly, in good condition, and probably doze off to the sound of one of those ridiculous reality shows. But he dragged his feet to one of the nearest windows, moving away the dark curtains with one hand and holding the plate with the other.

The shooting stars were a beautiful sight, even if he didn’t really like the legend tied to them. His house was on top of one of the hills that surrounded the city and he could see all the city lights under him from his garden, so it was no wonder he’d made a little hideout, just under the huge tree that troubled his neighbour so much.

It was on this night, when numerous shooting stars crossed the sky, when he took a moment to just stare, to take a breath of fresh air and relax while angel tears fell down around him in a mix of silver and gold.

_“The wish can be anything that the human desires, but it cannot bring the death back to life again, no matter how much it’s longed for.”_

He leaned on the wall, green eye following a luminous trail and then another, feeling more at peace by the second. He debated with himself whether he should go outside, to the garden, where he could lie down on the grass and admire the stars even better. They seemed to call him, in a way that reminded him of when he was younger, a child, when he stayed awake almost all the night, waiting for his companion to ask him for help and who would grant him a wish.

He sighed and finished his salad, yawning behind his hand. He left the plate on the coffee table as silently as he could, feeling as if just the faintest sound could break the peace that hung around his house. He looked back at the hallway where the door to his bedroom was, staring at it for a moment, before shaking his head with a slight smile and walking to the curtains that hid the sliding doors that led to the garden.

_“The angels always come to Earth when they cry. The light leads them to the human that will guide them.”_

Lavi moved away the long curtains, and then he slided the door to the side, his gaze moving immediately to the sky, streaked with shooting stars that crossed the dark in a way that was almost lazy. A smile appeared on his face and he stepped out. He’d missed this. It was like coming home, a home he hadn’t seen in a year.

_“The human will find the angel, and the angel will find the human, and their mission will start at once. Their bond will last in the stars.”_

He left his shoes and socks by the door, stepping on the soft grass barefooted, head upwards to the sky.

He wanted to just fall down on the grass, arms stretched to the stars, eye bright like them. But something was calling him, making him walk further, closer to the tree and the edge, from where he could see the city under him and the sky open above him.

He walked to the tree, hands restless, and he frowned when he saw something leaning on the trunk, pale, too pale, and he paused, rubbing his eye before continuing.

_“The angel will fall down on Earth surrounded by their own tears…”_

He paused just by the side of the tree, shooting stars forgotten as soon as he saw what surrounded the person leaning on the trunk.

_“... and the human will pick up the feathers.”_

They were golden feathers.

* * *

 

Lavi didn’t know what to do.

He’d spent the last half an hour sitting on the sofa, staring at the plate on the coffee table, hands clasped on his lap. Sleep had left him immediately as he’d turned around from the tree, legs moving on autopilot and mind too blank.

He knew he should do something. But his mind wasn’t helping, it was like trying to fit a piece of a puzzle where it didn’t belong, like a computer flashing an error at him.

He left his head fall, and it thunked on the coffee table. Just what was he supposed to do? He didn’t even know if what he saw was real, he was still in denial because, c’mon, it was all just a children’s fairy tale, wasn’t it? He’d worked on the city’s archives various times and he hadn’t seen anything about that, anything about angels, in them. It just didn’t make sense.

“Okay, Lavi, focus,” he mumbled to himself, and he moved his head so his cheek was pressed against the glass, back arched in what should have been an uncomfortable position. “Just what are the chances that the person in your backyard is a thief and has staged this so he could rob your house?” He hummed, closing his eye. “Or maybe… it was all just your tired head… yeah, that’s it.”

He let himself fall down from the sofa and into the floor, head still pressed on the table, and he groaned. He wanted to sleep. Maybe he should do that, just, go to bed, close the door, and deal with it all in the morning. Because, let’s face it, there was just no way that someone could be in his backyard. Much less an angel.

However, when he stood up, on shaky legs, he couldn’t help going to the sliding doors again, moving away the curtains from the glass, and leaning his forehead on it, eye locked on the tree. Oh, great, he was still there. _He was still there._

“Oh, hell, what do I do?” he grumbled, and pressed his head harder against the glass, groaning. The groaning turned higher and higher. It was childish, but really, what was he supposed to do? “Oh, to hell with it.”

He turned, walking quickly to his kitchen again and staring for a few seconds at the knives, wondering if it was really a good idea, if he wasn’t just being an idiot, but he just shrugged and took one of them.

The air outside was still pleasantly chilly, fresh wind crashing against his skin, and he was tempted once again to just lie down right there and sleep like he’d wanted to do for the past three hours. But he kept moving, knife heavy by his side, until he was in front of the person slumped under the tree.

He was maybe a little surprised when he saw that it was a boy around his age, maybe younger, with pale white hair that glinted under the gold and silver streaks crossing the sky. He was dressed in all white, with golden earrings dangling from his left ear. Lavi wondered again if he was making a fool of himself, raising the knife in front of him as if it was sword, gulping down his anxiety.

“Hey,” he called and, when nothing happened, he called louder, “Hey!”

He could see some movement, a twitch of a hand, a hand that had elegant tattoos wrapped around it, a deep red, like blood, he remembered, and he gulped again, calling again, feeling more insecure.

After a few minutes of calling stupid “hey”s, as Lavi refused to get closer to the boy, just in case something happened, he found himself taking a step backwards when the boy moved his head and the white hair moved away from his face, revealing another intricate tattoo on his face, the same deep red as the other, and he mumbled something.

“Are you…” started Lavi and he bit his lip, knife still posed in front of him, as if the boy in front of him would spring up and attack him any moment. “Are you a… thief? Murderer? What do you want… from me?”

The boy moved his head again, eyes fluttering open, and locking immediately on the redhead that was using a kitchen knife to defend himself. He frowned, white eyebrows knitting together.

“Do you even understand me?” asked Lavi, and the hand holding the knife wavered. The boy was staring at him now, it seemed, confusion clear on his face. Lavi sighed, and lowered the knife a few centimetres, running his other hand through his messy hair. “Look, I don’t know why you’re here or anything, but…”

He hadn’t realized that he had moved again the knife, and this time it had been too close for comfort to the boy, that he will admit. But still, it caught him by surprise. Because one second he was talking, back maybe a little slumped, and, you know, with both feet on the ground. And the next, his feet weren’t making contact with the grass. His back was, though. He coughed.

“You can’t just…” Lavi groaned as he tilted his head to the side, eye wanting to close so much, oh, his bed was such a good place to be right about now. It took him a few seconds to realize that the voice belonged to the boy, who was standing up now, leaning on the trunk, the knife in his tattooed hand. “You can’t just go around waving a knife at people! What the hell’s wrong with you?”

 

“Wha…” was his intelligent reply. Then he paused, closed his mouth, opened it again, and made a confused sound. “Wait, so you’re…”

The boy just looked at him with confused and tired eyes.

* * *

 

“Okay, so, let me get this right,” said Lavi, rubbing his temples with his fingers, eye closed tightly. He was pacing in front of the coffee table and sofa and he couldn’t, for the life of him, understand how he could be still awake. “You’re one of the guardian angels the legend talks about. Okay, right, all okay. _But_ , you don’t remember anything.”

“Pretty much,” said the boy, who was called Allen, apparently.

Lavi opened his eye, a grimace on his face, and he growled. His day was going from  bad to worse. Okay, so the so-called angel was nice enough, even if he had thrown him across his own backyard, he had a soft voice and kind eyes and, overall, he was quite pretty.

 _Still_ , Lavi’s overworked brain wasn’t helping him, at all, because the only thing he could think of was sleeping. He couldn’t even make sense of the boy’s predicament. Which was why he was pacing in the first place, keep the blood pumping to his head, _think_.

“Oh, great, this just makes it so easy, yes, _yes_ ,” he mumbled to himself and he waved his hands in the air. He could see Allen staring at him from the sofa, eyes concerned for his mental health. Another one in the line, just after half the people he knew. He paused in the middle of the room, and Allen’s eyes became nervous at once. “Okay, you know what?” he said and turned his head to his guest, yes, he’d call him that for the moment, least his head exploded, a wide smile on his face. Allen grimaced, eyes even more worried. “I’m going to sleep.”

And with that, he turned on his heels, almost slipping and falling on the floor, but he managed to keep his balance and keep walking, throwing a ‘I’m perfect, worry not, angel’ after him. He almost entered the bathroom instead of his bedroom, and he slammed his leg on the wall, which, for some reason, made him laugh. He started laughing harder when he imagined himself sleeping in the bathtub.

He could swear that he saw Allen raise a hand, eyes locked on him with worry, and he was pretty sure that the angel facepalmed just a second before he closed the door.

He didn’t even think about what he had done until the next morning, when he awoke around ten in the morning, evening, whatever, to the screams of some ungodly creature from hell. Also known as the old microwave he’d bought from a thrift store months ago when he moved into his current house.

He rolled out of bed, screeching, and braced himself against the bedside table to avoid hitting the various books thrown around his bed. It was one of his (numerous) bad habits. He tended to just let the book he was reading fall to the floor when he fell asleep, because he liked to read just before doing so, and the books just kept piling and piling. Maybe it was time to tidy it up.

He jumped around his room, avoiding the books, and he opened the door, eye focused and wary. He lived alone, why did the microwave... ?

His gaze was met by a pair of surprised silver eyes and he paused.

Oh.

Oh, great, yes, Lavi, you just went to sleep and left an amnesiac angel to fend for himself in the middle of the night, at an unfamiliar house, confused and…

“Do you mind if I eat these?” asked the boy, and he showed Lavi the instant noodles he had heated up in the microwave from hell. Lavi stared.

“Eh, no, you can… go ahead,” he said, voice small, and he could only watch as the angel smiled at him, making his heart skip a beat, and turned to the sofa, fishing some noodles and eating them with no trouble.

Okay, so he could fend for himself with no trouble. That was… that was good.

He turned back into his room, grabbed some random jeans, a random shirt and put on his favourite slippers. His friend Kanda wasn’t fond of them, but Lavi personally thought that they were rad. They were shaped like rabbits, okay, and he loved them. He’d used alchemy to keep them from wearing out a couple of times, and the guy from the gas station down the street had seen him wearing them various times when he went there to buy food at three in the morning.

He started making coffee, his mind trying to remember everything that had happened the previous night. Allen had found the remote control for the TV and was changing the channels while he ate the noodles. It was weird. He had a heavenly creature sitting on his sofa, eating his noodles and all he could think of was that he needed to buy more food.

“I remembered something,” said Allen then, eyes still locked on the TV. Lavi hummed, adjusting the cooktop’s temperature. Allen took another bite before answering. “You have to collect the feathers. And sign a contract with one of them.”

Lavi hummed again, absent-minded, eye still locked on the kettle, and there was silence between them again. Then he paused. He tilted his head to the side, looking out the glass door. It took him a few seconds, but then he noticed the wind rustling the tall grass and the trees’ branches.

“Shit!” he shouted, and Allen jumped, almost spilling his remaining noodles on the carpet. The angel glared at him, but Lavi didn’t have time to go over the legends to see if angels were able to glare, because he scrambled to open the glass door and rush outside. “Please don’t fly away, please, please, please.”

He literally lunged for the feathers, almost lost a rabbit slipper and screeched when the last golden feather flew dangerously towards his neighbour’s backyard. He managed to get to it before it crossed the border, and he sighed, relieved.

He slammed the glass door after him when he entered his house again, the feathers clenched firmly in his fist, and Allen locked his eyes on them immediately, eyes wide and searching, and Lavi had to remind himself that the boy dressed in all white was actually an angel and that the golden feathers were probably his. He wondered where his wings were.

“Okay, I have your feathers,” said Lavi, numbly, and his feet moved heavily to the side of the sofa where Allen was stretched on. “What do I have to sign, exactly? Also, why can you remember that? I thought you didn’t remember anything?”

“I can remember the rules, I think,” answered Allen, scratching his head and messing his hair. Lavi grimaced.

“There are rules?” he asked, and he knew that he sounded like a child, but c’mon, rules are boring. He wasn’t the most appropriate person to say that, though, seeing as he was an Alchemist, but, you know. Rebellious age?

“There are always rules,” said Allen, and he reached out for the feathers. He counted them, handling them like they were cards, eyes focused and white brows furrowed. Lavi worried for a moment. He didn’t miss any, did he? But Allen nodded to himself and stood up with a small smile, so Lavi allowed himself to breath a sigh of relief. “Okay, you need to sign the contract that will allow you to make a wish when the mission is complete.”

And with that, the angel turned around and walked right into his study, and Lavi’s heart jumped to his throat. Hey, hey, he wasn’t supposed to go in there.

“Hey, uh, Allen, buddy?” he called, and Allen turned to him, an eyebrow raised and Lavi struggled to find words. _Don’t be rude, don’t be rude._ “You… aren’t supposed to go in there. It’s kind of… personal, y’know?”

Allen paused, and then he frowned, and Lavi started screaming in his mind. Ah, he’d been so rude! He didn’t know what the angel was capable of, he could… Lavi froze. He could kill him. Who knew what kind of powers the boy had, but he already knew how strong he was, he’d been able to throw him so fast that he had been disoriented after he landed.

“But I already entered there this night,” said Allen and Lavi jumped- no, he didn’t jump. He just… “And there wasn’t anything that looked suspicious or too personal.”

“What.” And Lavi could only watch as the boy turned again and entered the study, feathers clutched on his hand, steps confident.

“Just come over here,” said Allen over his shoulder and disappeared behind the wall.

Lavi sighed, and ran his hand through his messy hair. Really, the study had the documents from his research with Bookman, journals, important and ancient books, things that were related to his work and all. Did that mean that Allen didn’t really care that he was an Alchemist? A man of science? Just the opposite of his existence, which was magic and legend?

“Do you have ink?” asked Allen and Lavi jumped, raising his head at once and walking quickly to his study, where the angel had entered… how much time had he been lost in thought exactly? He needed to stop doing that.

“I think I have some around,” he said, and hastily began searching around the desk’s drawers, mumbling to himself about the various objects he found in the process. A couple of potions he distantly remembered were to form mist around him, a few iron nails, some elaborate knives he had found in one of his travels, some eyes? Why did he have that there? Gross.

All the while, Allen just started reading the titles of the books that were around the room. Lavi had read every single one of them, from the ones that explained Alchemy rituals to the ones that talked mostly about ancient magic used by wizards and sorcerers and other druids. He much prefered the Alchemy ones, but he remembered that he loved the magic ones when he was younger. He was awfully aware of how much he’d changed over the years.

He grinned when he found a bottle of ink under some papers with alchemic circles drawn and crossed out randomly. His smile faltered a little when he caught sight of them. There was a reason he had all that as hidden as it was. He really was an idiot when he was a kid.

He made sure the ink was still liquid, with a little help from his own Alchemy, before turning back to Allen, his angel guest, who was now crouching in front of the huge bookcase, brows furrowed and eyes maybe a little confused, staring at a book. Lavi got closer to him, curious, was he remembering something else?

“Hey, I got the ink,” he said, and the angel didn’t jump like he expected to, he just kept staring at the book. Lavi frowned, and leaned down, eye on the same book. ‘The Duality of Magic’, uh?

“I feel as if I’ve seen this book before,” said Allen, voice soft and confused and Lavi arched an eyebrow. An angel interested in _that_ kind of magic?

“That’s the hardest type of magic, you know?” he commented off-handedly, and Allen turned to him for a moment, before going back to the book. Then he sighed.

“This is not really the time for this,” he mumbled and Lavi found himself staring at the angel as he got up and took the bottle of ink from his hands.

Something was off about the angel, he thought, as he watched him open the bottle and get a paper from the pile in the corner. Now that he thought about it, from where did the angels came from? Were they just born at heaven or something? Or…?

“So, how does this work?” he asked, walking to the desk, and he watched as Allen took one feather, inspecting it with his sharp eyes, before dipping it into the bottle of ink and pressing the tip of it on the white paper. The gold glinted under the sun that came from the window.

“Think of it as a normal contract,” said Allen as he began writing, hand steady but hesitant for a moment, before he got the hang of it and wrote the next lines of text easily. Lavi wondered what it was like writing with one of your own feathers. Weird, he supposed. Allen sighed as he finished writing and he turned to Lavi with a bright smile that caught the redhead off-guard for a moment, before he managed to grin back, and the angel handed him the contract and the golden feather. “Sign below the last line.”

Lavi took the paper from the angel’s hands and signed below the last line as he had been instructed, closing his fingers awkwardly around the feather. It was harder than he thought, but it wasn’t the first time he had written with a feather. He was an Alchemist, after all, and some traditions and rituals were really specific. It had been a while, though, his methods were usually more modern than the rest, something that never failed to annoy his grandfather. He leaned back and looked at the contract with conflicted emotions and hesitation. He… really made the right choice, ...didn’t he?

“And that’s it?” he asked and turned his head to the angel, who nodded. He hummed. “I didn’t expect it to be this simple.”

“What did you expect, then?” asked Allen, and he took the contract and read it carefully. Lavi shrugged.

“I don’t know, maybe some flashy stuff, golden light, runes, a blood sacrifice, a curse that said ‘if you don’t follow this contract you will die’... usual stuff,” he explained and  Allen looked at him, bemused, before he let out a long laugh. Allen hugged his sides and Lavi watched as the angel’s eyes watered, feeling proud of himself and his charisma and charm and wow, he was great, wasn’t he?

“Well, I could do some flashy stuff for you if you want,” said Allen when his laughter had died down to a soft chuckle.

Lavi arched an eyebrow, clearly interested. Who wouldn’t want to see an angel’s legendary powers? _Specially_ , if that angel _had_ launched him across his yard. Yes, he was still kinda salty and impressed about it.

“Oh, you could?” he asked and Allen just smiled softly at him. Lavi paused. “Wait, I have a little question, Al.”

“Shoot away,” said the angel, shrugging and he started walking to the living room, waving a hand at the contract. “You should probably keep that contract safe if you want to have your wish granted by the end of this. Remember, if you lose it or it’s destroyed you won’t be able to.”

“Good to know,” said Lavi and he immediately took hold of the paper, reading it again for good measure, just in case, before he locked it away in one of his drawers. He walked out from the study, and to where Allen was continuing to eat his noodles. For breakfast. He was an angel, maybe it was an angel thing? “So, my question… is… Do you have wings?”

Allen tilted his head back to stare at him with eyes that screamed ‘you’re such an idiot’ at him, and hey, he took offense to that! He was actually quite intelligent, thank you very much.

“I’m an angel, I think it was obvious,” said Allen, and Lavi pouted. Allen shrugged and returned to his meal, breakfast, lunch? Whatever. Angel stuff.

“Yes, yes, but you don’t have them _now_ ,” explained Lavi, and maybe he was a bit annoyed, because he didn’t know everything and anything about the guy sitting on his sofa. And he needed to know. It was his thing to know, and he was supposed to help him and all that jazz, which was kind of difficult if the guy, as ethereal as he was, didn’t tell him _anything_. He was nice enough, though, had a top rate smile that shone like the sun. It compensated for the secrecy, he supposed. Still. “So?”

“They are a pain,” said Allen simply, and Lavi stared. He was complaining about having wings that let him fly? Seriously? “They are huge, and flashy and I keep moving them all the time and knocking and breaking things… Also, you don’t need to worry about that right now. I’ll show them when we need them.”

Damn the stupid secrecy.


	2. Second Star

Alchemists were solitary people by definition, even if sometimes they got together to discuss new methods and learn from others. Most of the time? They just stayed at home, worked on new circles or some order from someone to get some money. Lavi wasn’t that different, even if he had friends. He usually stayed at home, holed up in his room or study, reading or experimenting. 

His routine had changed somewhat ever since Allen had come blasting into his life, though. He had someone else in his house, someone who talked with him, who commented on his work, who reminded him to tidy up his room once in a while if he didn’t want to die under the numerous piles of books and who was becoming his best friend in no time. It was… nice.

However, even if he liked having the angel around, he was a bit worried. Allen hadn’t remembered anything about the mission he was supposed to complete on Earth. And it showed. He was restless, always moving, sometimes he went out to run at the crack of dawn, leaving Lavi sleeping somewhere. Lavi always felt incredibly unhealthy when that happened, taking into account that he was a ‘books’ kind of guy. Not sports. The point was, that Allen needed to do something about his mission, or else they would both go mad.

“Do you want to go shopping with me?” asked Lavi as Allen stood up from the sofa for the tenth time now to get  _ another _ snack. Lavi didn’t know if angels usually ate that much, but at this point he was too afraid to ask. Allen looked at him with interest.

“Okay,” he said easily and Lavi left his new project on the coffee table after a sigh. “Where are we going? The store down the street?”

“I guess we could go to the mall this time,” said Lavi and he stood up, stretching up his arms with a low groan. “More stores, more food, better, don’t you think?”

Allen grinned and retreated into his room, one of the two guest rooms that Lavi had  _ somehow _ kept out of the chaos that was his lifestyle. He had modified some of his own clothes to fit Allen too, because Allen was shorter and leaner than him, and he couldn’t go out dressed in all white as if he was dressing up as a ghost, as amusing as it would be, least Allen took his revenge on him if he noticed that it was Lavi’s plan all along. 

Lavi had learned fast that, as kind and calm as Allen was, he took no shit from anyone. The first days of his stay at Lavi’s, the redhead had pranked the boy putting all his favourite snacks on the top shelf, where he knew the angel wouldn’t reach. There was no way he could climb the countertop to reach it, so Lavi would get to laugh at Allen needing a chair or maybe see his wings. Anyway, it was a win-win plan. 

Okay, so he learned two things that day: One, Allen was a damn acrobat of all things, so he hadn’t needed a chair or to show his wings, and two, he was happier not knowing how cunning Allen’s revenge was. He basically blocked his phone. For the whole month. And he ate all his snacks. And he somehow glued the door to his office so that it wouldn’t open. When he was inside. He really hoped that the meddling neighbour didn’t see him climb out from his window and enter through his front door. 

Lavi got his keys from the countertop and got out from his house with Allen, locking his door with a subtle movement of his hand, grinning when he heard the soft ‘click’. Alchemy was really useful, he mused quietly. 

The trip to the mall was short, and good thing it was, seeing as Lavi got to show Allen his amazing playlist of favourite songs. If the redhead had to guess from the annoyed grimace on Allen’s face as they got out from his red car twenty minutes later, he didn’t really like it that much. 

The mall wasn’t as busy as other days, and he was almost glad. He had learned in the short week they had been together that Allen didn’t really appreciate people staring at him, be it at his white hair or tattooes. When they got to the store to buy some food, some few people did stare at him with something close to disgust, but Lavi was quick to glare at them, steering Allen away before he could notice them, reciting the periodic table and different alchemic circles in his mind. 

“Hey, Al, d’you want these-?” asked Lavi, staring at some weirdly flavored chips, and before he could finish, a pale hand had already taken the bag out from his hands and thrown it inside the cart. Lavi laughed. “I needn’t have asked, uh?”

“Nope,” said Allen as he walking up and down the aisle, checking it all. 

Lavi had learned that Allen was his opposite when shopping. Where Lavi usually just took whatever seemed flashy and interesting, in small amounts, Allen took a little of everything, almost like a child, but he always, _always_ , checked the price tag, mumbling to himself about discounts and literally calculating the  _ exact _ money they would spend. It was awesome. And really helpful. 

Lavi took the cart to turn around and go to the register, but he paused when he saw Allen frozen on the other side of the aisle. He frowned, a little worried, remembering how the boy had behaved that time in his study. He looked at their stocked cart, sighed, and turned around again, nearly hitting an old woman with the cart, who glared at him as if he’d insulted her entire family. 

When he reached Allen, he saw that the boy had his gaze locked on a man that was on the fish market. He was probably on his late twenties, had toned skin, black unruly hair, and he was looking over some koi with a bored expression. Lavi didn’t know him, hadn’t even seen him before, but there was something about him that set off an alarm in his mind. 

“Allen, uh, buddy,” he called and he reached out, closing his fingers around the angel’s arm, “what are you doing?”

“That man…” mumbled Allen, but he didn’t move, like last time, and when Lavi tilted his head, red hair falling over his bad eye, he saw that his gaze seemed far away again. It was a little unnerving, because Allen was one of the most focused people Lavi had met. “I…”

“We should go, Al,” murmured Lavi, and he tugged on his arm softly until Allen let out a sigh and turned around, walking down the aisle towards the register without looking back. 

Lavi frowned, but he didn’t ask about it when they were in line, or when they were putting the food away, or when they were in the car, driving back home. He was about to do it when they got to his house, but Allen just holed up in his room and left Lavi alone at the living room, confused and worried. 

He finally got back to his project, but his mind kept going back to that man. He knew all kinds of supernatural elements, seeing as he was an Alchemist himself, but there weren’t that many, and still… still, that man seemed dangerous somehow, it was as if he had some kind of dark aura around him, as cliche as it sounded. One thing was clear for Lavi: Allen knew that man, but he couldn’t know if that was good or bad. He was leaning more on bad, but whatever. 

He groaned and rolled on the sofa, reaching out for his phone. He’d been looking around the Internet and he finally found how to unblock his phone. It was harder than he thought. He looked at the time, almost eleven pm, but his eye caught the new message, from Lenalee, one of his friends, and he grinned. 

_ ‘Hey! Kanda and I are in town!’ _

_ ‘Do you wanna meet?’ _

_ ‘Or are you too busy?’  _

Lavi unlocked his phone and wrote a fast message, ignoring how the papers he was working on fell from the sofa and table onto the floor. He only hoped there weren’t any coffee stains. 

_ ‘Ofc I’ll go!’ _

_ ‘Who do u take me 4, Lena??’ _

_ ‘U wound meh’ _

Lenalee was fast to write a reply.

_ ‘Okay, okay, what about… coffee shop down your street? At 5 tomorrow?’ _

Lavi grinned wider and looked at Allen’s door, still tightly closed. Maybe meeting new cool people would cheer him up. 

_ ‘Perfect!’ _

_ ‘I have someone i want u to meet btw’ _

Lavi reached out for the cup that was still on the coffee table as Lenalee wrote her next message, but he grimaced when he saw that he didn’t have more coffee. 

_ ‘Awesome!’ _

_ ‘Ah yeah try not to piss Kanda off too much this time’ _

_ ‘We’re still banned from that store’ _

_ ‘Just so you know’ _

Lavi laughed and typed a short message and quite a few smirk emojis before leaving his phone on the coffee table again. He tried to organize the papers again and work on them, but his eye-lid kept dropping and he kept yawning. 

He must have drifted off at some point, because the last thing he remembered was a dream about a dog that looked like coffee grounds and barked cringy songs. He would have wanted to be awaken slowly, not… not like _that_.

Allen had slammed the door on the wall when he came out from his room and Lavi had followed by screeching as he fell down from the sofa, surrounded by papers. He tried to brace himself against the coffee table, but he just succeeded in knocking his cup to the carpet. 

“I remembered something, Lavi, give me a… something! Something to write on, c’mon!” Lavi could only blink as Allen ran to him like a white and black blur and he nearly punched him on the face when his roomate reached out and took a sheet of paper from his nest. 

“What the actual hell is happening? Is it an alien invasion? Please, tell me it’s an alien invasion, I have so many memes for that,” drawled Lavi as he pushed himself up with his arm. Allen completely ignored him, hunched over the coffee table on the other side, writing quickly, silver eyes glaring into the paper. Lavi frowned. “Seriously, what’s going on?”

“I remembered something,” said Allen and this time, he did stop writing and he straightened his back. He glanced at Lavi for a moment then back at the paper. “It’s not much, though, but…”

“Lemme see,” said the redhead and he made a show of taking the paper carefully. Allen rolled his eyes at him and stood up to go to the kitchen, probably to find a snack, so he couldn’t feel too bad. 

What Lavi found was a string of symbols and for a moment, his mind reeled while it tried to piece it together with something more familiar to him, but finally he concluded that it was a language usually used for  _ magic _ , of all things. His theory that Allen was actually quite familiar with magic was turning out to be closer to the truth than what he had expected. Magic and Alchemy were sometimes seen as complete opposites, and to Lavi they were, but for some other people, like Gramps, they were of vital importance for each other, they went side by side. That Allen knew magic, could even be a mage… It just raised more questions. 

“See something you like?” asked Allen and Lavi jumped. He glared at his companion as the angel chuckled. His expression softened once again. “So? What do you think?”

“Do you know what it means?” asked back Lavi immediately, and Allen sighed, turning his neck until it cracked softly before moving to sit on the sofa, some cookies on his hands. 

“I know the general idea,” said the angel and Lavi opened his mouth to keep asking, but he didn’t get a chance, “ and yes, it’s magic, an ancient type of magic, the one that is passed down from generation to generation.”

“Uh,” mumbled Lavi, looking at the symbols again. That kind of magic was rare, so maybe it was a clue of some sort for the mission they were supposed to complete? “So… Maybe we need to find this family? For something? Maybe they did something bad?”

“I don’t know,” said Allen and when Lavi turned to him again, he found the angel staring at the ground, dismayed. That was… unacceptable.

“Hey, Al, don’t look so down,” he said and he grinned cheerfully. Allen just arched an eyebrow at him, before sighing and standing up again. “We have all the time in the world!” 

_ I hope.  _

“It’s just… Here we are, stuck because I don’t remember what we are supposed to be doing.” Allen laughed humorlessly. “I’m holding you back from getting your wish.”

Lavi hummed softly and then a grin, more genuine than the last, stretched on his face. 

“Would it help if I say that I haven’t really thought of a wish yet?” asked Lavi and Allen turned to him quickly, eyes wide. Lavi laughed.

“Really? Not even one?” Allen seemed extremely curious and Lavi wondered if the angel had any wishes… it was highly unlikely, seeing as he didn’t remember anything… which had to be really scary, actually. He was in a house he didn’t know, with no memories, just instinct, sharing the same roof with someone who could be using him as a means to get granted a wish that could even be a really bad idea that could make everything worse.

“I mean, I have some ideas… some of them actually entail having people give me a break,” laughed Lavi and he was glad when Allen’s shoulders fell into a relaxed stance, opposite to his bubbling anxiety. “But the one with most points right now is that one that let’s me know everything about the past, all the mysteries, all that is part of history.”

“That’s... different” said Allen and Lavi grinned sheepishly for a moment. “It’s not bad, though.”

“What… would you wish for?” asked Lavi, this time hesitation clear on his voice. Maybe he was being rude, maybe even cruel, who the hell asked someone with amnesia what they wished for? Oh, shit, he fucked up, didn’t he? “I mean, you don’t have to-”

“I would wish to remember,” said Allen immediately, and Lavi’s heart skipped a beat, because, yes, he had fucked up, time to move to another country and start all over again with a new name. Maybe James. James was a really common name, nobody would know. But Allen grinned at him and Lavi relaxed instantly. “And also…”

“Also…?” pushed Lavi, this time mostly interested, seeing as Allen didn’t hold it against him. Allen hesitated. 

“I would want to know why I keep staring at… things,” said the angel, voice flat, and Lavi tilted his head. Then it clicked. 

“You mean like that book and that man?” Allen nodded slightly. Lavi sighed. “Allen, do you know where the angels come from?”

“Where we come from?” repeated Allen and Lavi nodded. “Isn’t it in the legend?”

“The legend only talks about you guys coming,” explained Lavi. “Not from where you come from. You come from Heaven to Earth, but were you born on Heaven? Were you born on Earth and then go to Heaven? Before you fell on my garden, I didn’t even believe you were real. There are no records of angels. I would know.”

“So what you’re saying… is that those are things I recognize from when… before?” asked Allen, and Lavi nodded, even if the angel wasn’t even looking at him anymore. Instead, he was staring at the kitchen counter, gaze unfocused, lost on his thoughts. “It could be. The thing is… Say, if I  _ was _ born in Heaven, if I was an angel from the start, why would I know that man?”

Lavi hummed under his breath and he tapped the pen Allen had been writing with before on the coffee table. He was still sitting on the floor, but he didn’t really mind anymore, so was his life. 

“I don’t know if you noticed, Al, but that man… there was something off about him,” explained Lavi cautiously. Allen sighed.

“Not really, I was… lost in thought, to be honest,” mumbled Allen. Allen then grinned at him. “Are you talking about auras and stuff?” 

“Auras and stuff?” laughed Lavi, and Allen threw an apple at him from his perch on the counter. Lavi grinned at him again before taking a bite from it. “And yes, that’s what I’m talking about. I’m not the best guy with magic, but if you can read those” he pointed at the paper on top of the table, “then chances are you can sense auras like a mage or someone similar can. Again, not the best guy to ask about this.”

“Right, you’re an Alchemist,” chuckled Allen and Lavi perked up. “Alchemy and magic are said to be opposites, after all.”

“That’s true, that’s true,” said Lavi, smirk growing with every word that passed his lips. He took another bite from the apple. “But… I didn’t tell you that, Al.”

Allen startled and Lavi endured his sharp gaze when the angel stared at him.  _ Gotcha. _

“You did it on purpose,” said Allen, and it was not a question, it was a fact, and Lavi’s smirk grew. 

“I have experience,” he said simply. Allen shook his head, but he was smiling, which meant he wasn’t exactly mad. Lavi would have to be on guard, though, just in case. Allen was one of the hardest people to read that he had met in all his life and, while fun, it was… unsettling. “So, should we search for clues? Maybe wait until you remember anything else?”

Allen was silent for a few seconds, fidgeting with the drawers, before shrugging.

“Can we investigate with what we have?” he asked back and Lavi checked what he remembered from the town’s archives. He hummed softly. 

“Maybe,” he said. “We could try the town’s archives, I’m pretty good at searching information, after all.”

“I don’t doubt that,” answered Allen with a relaxed smirk. Lavi grinned at him. 

“Oh, I almost forgot,” _Not really, but whatever_. “Some friends of mine will be coming to town. Do ya wanna meet’em?” 

Allen tilted his head curiously, brows furrowed.

“What are they like?”


	3. Third Star

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art link here: https://yshoulditellu.tumblr.com/post/177703101351/dgraymanbigbang-im-dying-pls-send-help-24

“Lena is the best, I can tell you that much, and Yuu, eh, he’s okay, I guess, he’s really fun to tease, the only thing you need to do is call him by his first name and he will snap immediately, it’s hilarious, the only one who can come out of that without a near-death experience is his friend Alma, but they stayed at home,” rambled Lavi while Allen and him walked down the street.

They had made up a believable story that explained why Allen was living with Lavi and why the others hadn’t known he even existed before. Lavi had gone a little overboard with it, and Allen had come close sometimes, but they somehow managed to keep the explanation alien-free and without mysterious kidnappings.

Lenalee and Kanda knew about Alchemy, of course, Kanda himself had been adopted by a family of magus when he was a child, before he got adopted by best-dad Tiedoll. Lenalee… she just caught him while doing an experiment and Lavi didn’t even get the chance to bullshit his way out of it.

The little cafe where they were going to meet was cozy, with long wood tables and mismatched chairs that people tended to move from side to side if they saw one to their liking. The owner was a middle-aged woman that always smelled like fresh flowers and made the best coffee in all town, in Lavi’s opinion. When they entered, Lavi saw Allen’s eyes focus immediately on the several plates with colorful desserts that lined the counter and he chuckled.

After a quick search, he concluded that neither Lena nor Kanda were there yet, so they took a seat in one of the tables at the end of the shop and Lavi walked to order their coffees and, to Allen’s delight, some of the desserts. Allen had to take the cups from his hands when he came back and hit his head on one of the flowerpots that were hanging from the white-colored ceiling. He ignored Allen’s grin while he stared at his cup and sometimes at the door.

When the door opened and the two Asians entered the cafe, Lavi’s hand was in the air just one second later, cheerful grin perfectly in place. Allen did tilt his body to the side, fork still in his mouth, to watch as the two people walked to the table. The first one was Lena, of course, her best gentle smile lighting up her face, followed by Kanda’s neutral one. Lavi didn’t waste time.

“Hi, Lena! It’s so good to see you again! And Yuu, it’s been so lo-” He braced himself on the table when Kanda kicked his chair and almost sent him to the floor. He just grinned at the man, even if Kanda grumbled at him.

“It’s been a long time, yes, it’s good to come back” sighed Lenalee. She blinked at Allen. Then she flushed. “Oh, God, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there, it was so rude of me. Even when Lavi told me you were going to be here…”

“Oh, it’s okay, don’t worry,” chuckled Allen and he moved the chair by his side with his foot so that Lenalee could sit. She settled her purse on top of the table and draped her thin jacket on the chair, cheeks still red from embarrassment.

“Still…” she mumbled to herself, then shook her head and lifted her head, smiling again. “I’m Lenalee, and that grumpy idiot over there is Kanda. Ignore whatever Lavi has told you to call him, just Kanda.”

Lavi made an offended “hey”, before he huffed and stood up, walking over to the counter again. He already knew what the two of them would want, he had it memorized already, it was child’s play. He leaned on the wood counter while he waited, and watched from the corner of his eye as Lenalee and Allen started a pleasant conversation with each other as Kanda looked out the window. Grey clouds were beginning to creep up on the sky, some houses had switched on the lights, and some people had started to hurry down the street.

This time he didn’t hit his head as he placed the two cups on the table and Allen smirked at him slightly from where he was still talking to Lenalee. He had caught them complaining about his bad habits… at least they were getting along, even if it was while criticizing him.

“How come we didn’t know about you?” asked Lenalee at some point and Allen and Lavi couldn’t help the playful gaze they sent each other.

“Idiot rabbit probably forgot,” mumbled Kanda and Lavi glared at him with mock offense. Kanda ignored him, taking another sip of his tea.

“Our families are friends since forever, actually,” said Lavi. Allen had apparently left him all the work, because the white-haired boy was stuffing his face with more dessert. He had already lost count of how many he’d had. “He came here to do some research, and I offered my house. We met a few days ago, to be honest, we only knew of each other in passing.”

“Really?” asked Lenalee, surprised, and for a moment Lavi worried that it was her bullshit detector acting up. “You seem so close already.”

“I guess we make a good pair,” said Allen absentmindedly while he took another bite of the voluminous cake in front of him. Lavi raised his cup to his lips. _Yeah, good pair, yeah._

“What do you need to research?” asked Lenalee, and while she probably had good intentions, Lavi jumped slightly, which earned a suspicious look from Kanda. Allen had it covered, it seemed.

“It’s just family research, kind of boring,” he answered, carefully, and Lavi sagged in the chair in relief. That was one of the points they hadn’t covered because they had started coming up with stupid theories and they were running late. Lenalee sighed with a smile.

After that Lenalee started showing them the numerous photos she’d taken while she was abroad, telling them the most interesting and funny stories with a smile and chuckles. Lavi absorbed all the information like a sponge, from the various cultures of the place, to the route his friend had taken to visit everything. He was sure Lenalee was doing it on purpose.

“Oh, did you know about the kidnappings?” asked Lenalee, as the owner of the cafe turned on the TV at some point. It had started to rain at one point, and Lavi had been lost in thought as he watched the drops hit the window, listening as Allen and Lenalee conversed on about the best place to eat in town.

Lavi turned to her, blinking in confusion, before following her gaze to the TV. He frowned immediately. There had been some missing citizens that week, and the police was running ragged searching for them and tending to all the worried families. He kicked lightly at Allen’s foot, and both of their gazes met, Lavi’s now cold and calculating, Allen’s worried and determined.

“Lena,” called Lavi, and the girl turned to him, lowering her hand from where she’d been biting her nails. “Do you know anything about this? I mean, something… important.”

“I don’t know much,” she sighed, maybe disappointed, he couldn’t tell, but Lenalee had worked on the TV for a few months and had some contacts that were usually willing to listen to her and give her information. “But, if you want to know something that they aren’t talking about on TV… Leave it to me.”

Lavi grinned to her and she smiled back. It threw Lavi back, to when they were still in High School and they worked together to solve some unimportant mystery. High School… Maybe it was time for some memory digging.

“You know, you aren’t much of a talker, are you?” Lavi snapped to the present as Allen grinned, no, smirked, in Kanda’s direction. The man glared at him.

“And what’s to you, Beansprout?” snapped Kanda and Lavi had to cover his mouth with his hand to stop the full-blown laugh that threatened to escape as he watched Allen’s smirk fall and crumble.

“What did you just call me, samurai wanna-be?” snapped back Allen and Lavi snorted into his hand as Lenalee shook her head with an exasperated sigh.

“Oh, the beautiful start of a legendary friendship, I can see it, can’t you, Yu-” Lavi broke off with a huff as Kanda shrugged off his arm which he had draped over his shoulders. Lavi grinned, but it was weak and it just trembled more when Kanda’s glare became more intense. “A little help?”

But Lenalee was visibly texting, and Allen was watching the TV, gaze still fierce, deliberately ignoring both of them. Lavi sighed, then smiled. Like the old days, then.

And that is why he ended up getting even more on Kanda’s nerves, to the point that Kanda snapped and stood up from the chair. Some people looked over at them, but most of them ignored them completely. Lavi laughed nervously and that was when Lenalee came for the rescue and calmed down the situation with just a few words.

They waited until it stopped raining to leave the cafe and go home. Lavi had spent the last half an hour talking with Lenalee and Allen again, always laughing when Allen and Kanda glared at each other over the littlest things. Oh, Lavi wanted to see more interactions between the two.

“I promise I’ll come by again next month,” said Lenalee as they parted ways in front of the cafe. Lavi sniffed, which only made Kanda roll his eyes and Allen glare at him in return. “I can’t talk for him, though.”

“Oh, he’ll come too, I’m sure, this time with Alma,” said Lavi, and while Kanda rolled his eyes again, Lavi could see how his lips twitched up at the name and knew at once that he was right. As always. He turned to Allen, who was a calm presence by his side again. “You’ll love Alma, I’m sure you’d be best friends in no time.”

“I wouldn’t doubt that,” chuckled Lenalee and she and Allen exchanged smiles and even a hug, which made Lavi smile with pride, his judgement was always on point, he had known that they would get along perfectly well. “It’s been great to meet you, Allen, I hope you can come here again.”

Allen smiled and chuckled and Lavi and Allen watched as Lenalee and Kanda walked over to the car parked under one of the trees and drove off. Lavi breathed in the fresh smell of rain and cold air as he turned to leave and Allen didn’t waste time to do so too, everything silent again as they were alone again.

“It was nice,” commented Allen as they walked, voice soft, and Lavi hummed. “It’s… a shame, though, that at some point I’ll have to leave.”

Lavi faltered on his next step, but didn’t let it be known and just skipped on the sidewalk, eye still staring straight ahead to the hill.

“Right…” he mumbled to himself, ignoring how every heartbeat stung.

* * *

 

Lavi wouldn’t admit that Allen’s words had rattled him, but he managed to convince Allen to watch a movie with him. It was easy to do, all he needed to do was bribe his roommate with food.

At one point, the movie was so boring that Allen had hugged the blankets to himself and had fallen asleep on the other side of the sofa, while Lavi was hopelessly trying to find something worth noting on the stupid rom-com the movie had turned out to be. The tropes were so overused, what with jealous ex-wives and ex-husbands and all the bullshit they pulled out of their ass that Lavi had to fight to keep his eye open. It had started raining just a few hours after they had reached their home, so the calm sound of the drops of rain hitting the windows only made him even more drowsy.

With nothing better to do, he rubbed his eyes and took out his phone from where it had dropped between two cushions. He looked over some photos Lenalee had sent him from her vacation with a small smile, then remembered the kidnappings and searched for more information on them on the Internet. There was nearly nothing about them, which made Lavi frown from various reasons, but he continued digging around, there had to be _something._

Lenalee did send him some names of missing people after a few hours of searching for nothing, but she couldn't exactñy tell him much when even the police was confused. 

It could be his paranoia speaking, but Allen and him had the same reaction at the cafe, and it was weird enough to be related to what the angel needed to do on Earth. His fingers clenched around his phone when he remembered what would happen when they finished the mission, but he shrugged off the gloomy feeling. No time for it. He had been really calm when he had told Allen that they had all the time in the world, but… Maybe they didn’t. The fact that he didn’t know anything about the situation put him on edge and made him think the worst. He wasn’t going to take any chances.

Allen stirred beside him. Lavi sighed and let his arm fall down from where it had been raising his phone to his face. He closed his eyes. No matter where he looked, they only talked about just a few names of the people that had disappeared and how the families were panicking. There wasn’t anything in common between the victims, but Lavi couldn’t say for sure without looking into their backgrounds. Maybe they were all mages? Some sort of hidden race? Was that why they were being kidnapped or… vanished?

He grunted when he struggled to get out from the mess of blankets and walked to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Maybe it was better coffee… He crossed his arms on the chilly surface of the counter.

They would go to the archives. He had to be sure of what was going on, and if the missing people were really part of what they usually called ‘hidden world’, then it all fit.

He walked around slowly, trying to remember anything else that had made him tick while they were with Lenalee and Kanda. He hummed, made sure that Allen was still asleep, and then moved to his study.

There was something that Allen had said that didn’t really make sense. Well, it did for him, for Lavi and Lenalee and Kanda, of course, but for Allen to know that…

He took out the box that contained the yearbooks and he hesitated for a moment. Then he picked up the last one, the one from where Kanda and himself had been in Senior year. It was an ugly yellow that had made Lavi rant to Lenalee about the ugliness of the last yearbook that he would get in his life, which only made the girl block him for a few days until he left her alone.

Allen had called Kanda “samurai wanna-be” and, while it was kinda true, seeing as Kanda did know how to use a katana, perfectly well, in fact, Lavi had thought back to what he had told the angel about the guy and had been really confused for a moment, because he didn’t tell Allen anything about Kanda and his hobby. His mind had immediately dragged him back to his theory of the origins of the angels and, well, he just needed to check something.

Kanda had been really popular at High School because of how good he was with a katana, he had been a champion quite a few times, and, as much as Kanda hated all the attention, there wasn’t anyone who didn’t at least know of him and his skill at the school.

Lavi searched around the yearbook, looking out for any boy that looked like Allen, but came up short. He searched around the name section, but growled when there were a few Allen’s. It was a common name, but c’mon.

He sighed and sat back, rubbing his temples. He had expected to at least find something interesting, but it didn’t seem so. He checked the other yearbooks just in case, looking through the older years, but no luck. Some of the Allen’s didn’t have a photo, so Lavi couldn’t know if he was looking at who could have been his Allen or not. He could always say the surnames to Allen and hope that the angel would react to one of them. Then he shook his head. He couldn’t come barging into Allen’s mysterious life, it could be dangerous. For him. And maybe Allen too. He didn’t know _anything_ about the angels.

...Yeah, maybe it would be best to step down.

He was sure of one thing, though. They needed to go to the town archives.

With a big grin, he stood up, hid his yearbooks again and marched to the living room to cheerfully wake up his roommate, who wasted no time in slamming the empty plate on his head with an angry shout.

* * *

 

Allen had been interested in the archives ever since Lavi had talked to him about it, so, when Lavi told him his idea, the angel agreed to it quickly.

They went to the archives the next day. Lavi was cheerful when they got out from the car, but Allen was glaring at him and slammed the car door loudly, nearly rocking the car from side to side. Lavi’s grin turned hesitant. Maybe subjecting the angel to his ‘eccentric’ playlist first thing in the morning hadn’t been his best idea.

“Apparently,” grumbled Allen as the both of them walked up the stairs that led to the wide building in front of them, “you ran out from ‘great ideas’ yesterday.”

“Yeah, maybe,” laughed Lavi, but it was clearly forced and not amused at all. Allen was scary. How did he forget about that, again?

Lavi led the way to the room where he supposed they could get some answers, greeting people left and right. He knew the building like the palm of his hand, not only because of his amazing memory, but because he had been working there himself for quite some months before he was dextrous enough with Alchemy to make a living out of it. In turn, the people that still worked there knew him well, or at least, as well as he had made sure. That wasn't much, but people thought they knew him perfectly, so it worked for him.

Allen followed after him, looking around with calm eyes and a friendly smile for the workers. Lavi knew that it was technically illegal for him to have access to the archives, seeing as he wasn't a worker anymore or a police officer, but… oh, well, he had his ways. Usually his old man. He really needed to tell him something about the situation, unless he wanted to have the old Bookman nagging him with even more work.

The room smelled of old books and ink, and the walls were lined up with dark bookshelves that almost reached the white ceiling. There were quite a few ladders around and Lavi grinned when he remembered how he used to make a fool of himself on them when he was working there.

“What exactly are we looking for?” asked Allen, walking over to one of the bookshelves and looking at the vanilla folders arranged neatly on it. Lavi hummed.

“I've written some names here,” he said, reaching into his pocket and getting out a wrinkled paper. “We should look for them, see if they are part of magic families or are related to them.”

Allen turned to him, white brows furrowed.

“These are the town archives, right?” he asked, and his voice lowered slightly. “Why would there be archives from the hidden world?”

Lavi didn't know if that name had slipped or if Allen had just assumed that it was another way to call that world, but he took note of it, just in case. Nevertheless, he grinned again and walked over to the long table with a folder already in his hands.

“This room has a bit of everything. That's why I chose it. It has information on normal people, of course, but it also has information on some families that are related or are magical,” he explained. Allen hummed. Lavi's grin widened. “When we finish here… I know a place. They have amazing food there. Maybe be should…?”

“We'll go.” Lavi couldn't hold back his laughter.

“Let's get right to it then!”


	4. Fourth Star

Lavi sighed for what had to be the hundredth time that day and threw the documents at the table, channeling his frustration into his throw. They almost toppled a tower of files over and he glared at them. He didn't want to have to pick them all up. Not at all. 

“Do you have anything?” he asked Allen with a defeated voice. 

“Not really,” sighed Allen from his perch on the other side of the table. He'd moved some chairs around, because, apparently, the angel needed to move if he wanted to be productive, so he paced, he sat on different chairs, sometimes on the table itself, leafing through the pages. “I mean, not more than we already have.”

“This is just great,” grumbled Lavi while he stretched his arms up, tipping his chair until only two legs touched the ground. “I thought we would find something more here…”

To be honest, Lavi _ did _ think that they'd find something that would actually help them decide if they were on the right track or not. But so far they'd only learned that the families which had missing members were a mix of magical and non-magical beings. And so, that information was completely useless. It left Lavi seething. 

“Maybe it's not completely useless, you know,” said Allen after a few moments of defeated silence. Lavi rolled his head and looked at his companion with tired eyes. Allen did roll his eyes at him, but he continued, “Now we know that those families aren't all magical, so we might be dealing with something that wants to tamper with the balance of the world.”

“The magical families are supposed to hide from the others. They can be friends, but they absolutely  _ mustn’t  _ tell them what they are…” mused Lavi, staring at the old-fashioned ceiling. Allen nodded. “Uh, could be. Still, we have nothing to guide us.”

Allen sighed and his shoulders sagged. Lavi was adamant on admitting it, but at this rate, the only thing that could really help them, guide them to the right direction, were Allen's memories. If the angel could remember what he was supposed to do, if they could trigger one more dream that shed some light on the matter, then maybe… 

But he couldn't force Allen. That was the problem, he didn't know what made Allen tick, what had made the angel have that dream that had started this wild chase. Oh, well, yes he did. That man, Lavi was pretty sure that it had been that man who had made it work… For better or worse. 

Lavi didn't even know who that man was, Allen himself didn't know, and Lavi had searched around the archives for someone like that, but he didn't get anywhere without a name or surname or even a clan name. He only had his instincts, and even that wasn't of much help when his mind told him absolutely nothing but ‘danger’. 

“Okay, this is hopeless, let's just go eat,” said Lavi after a while of glaring at the papers strewn around the table. Allen nodded, but his shoulders were hunched  and his eyes still glanced over some papers. 

Lavi wasn't actually lying about that good place to eat, so Allen's surprise was kind of offensive. He ranted to him about true friendship while they waited in line to order their food. Allen spent most of the pep-talk staring at the people ordering, as if he could intimidate them to go faster and get him out of his misery. Lavi didn't know if it worked, because it did seem a little short, compared to other rants. 

“So, what should we do now?” asked Lavi, mixing ketchup and mayonnaise over his French fries. Allen was surrounded by burgers on all sides, eyes focused on the one he was unwrapping. Lavi hadn't even begun to eat, and yet, Allen had gulped down three burgers. 

“What options do we have?” asked Allen. Lavi was kind of surprised that he had answered. “Are we even sure that the kidnappings are what we are supposed to focus on?”

“To be honest, we don't know at this point,” said Lavi. He reached for one of Allen's burgers, you know, for science, but the boy was more alert than he seemed and slapped his hand away. “Maybe we should wait until you have another dream, Al. I'm at a complete loss right now.”

Allen munched on his burger for a few minutes, staring at the table, a blank expression on his face. It made Lavi want to throw himself out a window and never come back, it was as if he'd accidentally kicked a puppy. A puppy that could kill him, but a puppy nonetheless. He opened his mouth to apologize, maybe tell Allen that he didn't mean to pressure him, but the angel was faster. 

“What if we’re too late to do whatever we need to do?” asked Allen, voice soft and tinted with doubt. 

Lavi bit his lip and reached for another french frie, if only not to look at his companion in those stormy grey eyes that could look into his soul. 

“I don't think that we have a time-limit…” he said and gosh, he was such a liar, just the day before he'd nearly panicked because  _ maybe _ they didn't have enough time, after all. He sighed. “Allen, it's not like I'm pressuring you. It’s just… what can we do?”

Allen sighed and lowered his burger and Lavi felt his heart squeeze in pain. That was new, that pain, but he didn’t want to think about it, so he ended up shoving it away immediately. 

“I’ll try…” said Allen, and Lavi grinned, trying to put him at ease. He didn’t know if it did something, because Allen continued biting his lip and staring at the table. “I can’t make any promises, though.”

“Don’t worry,” said Lavi and yep, that was enough tense talk for that day. He reached again for a burger, but Allen snatched it away before he could close his ink-stained fingers around it. Allen glared at him. “Now, that’s just rude.”

“It’s not, you’re the rude one,” grumbled Allen. He moved the burger closer to himself while he bit down on the burger on his other hand, still glaring at Lavi, as if daring him to try it again. Lavi was tempted, but thought better of it for once and let the angel be.

After Allen had finished his 20 burgers and Lavi had ordered an ice cream, saying that it was his money and he was a working adult so he could and he would buy the  _ freaking ice cream, Allen _ , they got in the car again and drove off to Lavi’s home. Lavi was hesitant to give Allen his ice cream and even when he did, he still looked at it from time to time. Allen rolled his eyes at him, but c’mon, Allen ate so much and he had a sweet-tooth, it was only logical that Lavi would be this paranoid. It was the twelfth time he tilted his head to make sure that it was still there that Allen moved his head so it would face forward to the road with an annoyed huff. 

Lavi lived on the outskirts of town, if only because there were more magical families around and they could cover for him if something went wrong in his experiments, like, maybe, explosions and random storms that shed lightning only on top of his house. To get there, they needed to drive through what Lavi liked to call ‘the rich-land’. It was a neighbourhood in which, yeah, rich people lived. Huge houses painted in light colors, perfectly maintained gardens and expensive cars parked left and right. It was not uncommon to see uniformed people walking purebreed dogs around the trees that lined the streets, always with tired or annoyed expressions on their faces. 

Allen did stare at some of the houses, and Lavi looked at him, alert, searching for that shine in his eyes that could mean he recognized something, but after a few minutes of nothing, Lavi sighed softly and kept his eyes on the road. He had read about some of the families living there. Some of them were magical and a few of them even requested things from him, but Lavi didn’t really like dealing with them. They were cold, with smiles that didn’t reach their eyes, and treated people like they were dirt. So, yeah, talk about pleasant. 

“Why is that house abandoned?” asked Allen, and Lavi hummed, moving his head to follow Allen’s gaze. 

Ah, the Campbell family. They had been ‘friends’ of his grandfather… well, he didn’t know if they qualified as ‘friends’, but they knew each other quite well. He had been in that house when he had been a curious kid, pestering Gramps until he caved in and left him tag along to meet the eccentric family. They were good people and Lavi still wondered why they had been called eccentric by other magical families in the past. The woman, Katerina, had given him some history books that had kept him quiet for hours while he absorbed all the information. 

“Ah, that house was owned by the Campbell family years ago,” explained Lavi. His grin dimmed. “There was a tragedy and the family just couldn’t stay in a house full of memories.”

Yes, the tragedy that had been the death of an important family member that Lavi hadn’t even met. One moment the family was having tea parties in the garden, the other they were gone. Gramps had told him not to disturb them, to let them assimilate things, and they had fallen out of touch. Lavi didn’t know if old Bookman was still in contact with what was left of the family. He regretted it, they had been such a light-hearted family…

“It must have been a beautiful house…” mumbled Allen, still staring at the house. Lavi sighed, eyes still glued to the road, hands clutching the steering-wheel. 

“It was,” he said, voice soft. His mind was elsewhere and he knew he looked as if he was far away, which wouldn’t be a lie. Allen blinked and turned to him. 

“You’ve been there?” he asked lightly, and for a moment Lavi was quiet. Then it dawned on him. That’s right, he hadn’t been very open himself, had he? The angel didn’t know anything about him. The opposite was true, yes, but Allen didn’t even know himself. 

“Yup,” he said. “I went there with Gramps when I was a kid. They were a good family, I can tell you that. Then life happened, we grew somewhat distant, and  _ then _ the tragedy happened and… Well, I don’t know where they are now.” He paused. “Gramps probably knows.”

“Your grandfather?” asked Allen and Lavi nodded. Apart from the short anecdotes he liked to tell, he didn’t explain much about his strict grandfather. He usually complained about him. 

“Gramps… you could say that he raised me,” he said and Allen hummed. What was it like to hear from families and not even remember yours? It must have been painful, thought Lavi. “He has a lot of contacts in all town, and he is an expert on Alchemy and history… he’s the reason I’m so hung up on both things, I guess.”

Allen was silent for a few minutes and Lavi focused on the road again, stealing short glances at what was the Campbell household. The grass was overgrown, the facade was covered in lively green vines and the wood from the windows was cracked and uneven, it made the house seem sad, still grieving, and Lavi had to pry his eye off it when he drove past. 

“Wouldn’t your grandfather… know how to help us?” asked Allen when they reached their neighbourhood. Lavi hummed. 

“I don’t know,” he said after a few seconds. He grimaced. “Gramps isn’t one for legends, Al. I don’t even know how he would react to all this.”

And it was the truth, Lavi didn’t know how his grandfather would react to it. Would he hang up on him? Would he tell him he had lost his mind? Would he believe him and help them? He didn’t even know where he was. They’d had a mission just before all this had started, a mission to collect some materials for some kind of new experiment that would help make the transmutations faster. But after that they’d just parted ways like always, with Bookman reminding him to be careful and not to be an idiot. 

“It was just an idea,” shrugged Allen, looking out the window. Lavi nibbled on his lip. 

“I’ll call him tomorrow, just in case,” he said in the end. If only to not keep his only family member in the dark. 

Allen nodded, but he remained silent through what was left of the trip. Lavi could understand, after all, how much pressure he had on him. They needed to rely on his scattered memories again and the fact that they didn’t even know what triggered them was a real problem. It felt as if they were in square one again, even though they had some clues here and there. He didn’t even know if his grandfather would know something to help them either, or if the old man would even help them out. Lavi was close to him, but it was so difficult to read him, so hard to know in which direction his thoughts would go, that Lavi didn’t want to hope just in case. 

Allen remained thoughtful until dinner, and even then he had spent half of it staring at the table, grey eyes lost in a sea of doubt and frustration. Lavi had just reached out with his hand to try to bring him back to the present, when the boy lifted his head. The redhead jumped, startled from the sudden movement, but he bit back the amused question that was on the tip of his tongue when he saw Allen frown. 

“What is it?” asked Lavi, because he knew that look. He smiled slightly, trying to stuffle the hope that was rising too fast for his liking. “Did you… remember anything?”

Allen was silent for a moment, looking down at his food again, a weird mix of rice and meat and some vegetables that Lavi had remembered they still had. Lavi waited as patiently as he could, but he couldn’t help moving his leg up and down. 

“That house…” mumbled Allen, voice so soft that you had to be close to him to understand it. Lavi leaned forward, elbows on the table. 

“The Campbell mansion?” said Lavi and Allen nodded slightly. “You think it has some answers?”

“Maybe,” said Allen, then he sighed. “I don’t know. I can only tell you that I can feel something coming from there.”

“Well,” grinned Lavi, “then it’s worth to check it out.” He paused. “You wanna go to the store and buy something to celebrate? ”

Allen looked at him as if he had lost his mind which, okay, fair enough, but he couldn’t stand to see Allen looking so down, it made him sad and it made his heart ache and yeah, he didn’t really want to think about it.

“I’m not even sure if this is a step in the right direction, Lavi,” said Allen, but Lavi was already finishing his meal. 

“Whatever, food is food, right?” replied Lavi, grinning up at Allen. He lowered his head so that he could eat faster, but he still heard Allen sigh. And yet, when he finished and stood up to put his plate away, he saw Allen’s tiny smile. His heart sung in joy and he skipped to the table to find some money. 

The store clerk knew him by name from all the times he’d gone there in some ungodly hour of the night to buy just a box of cookies, so he greeted them when they entered the store. Lavi greeted him back with a cheerful grin and Allen smiled at him, before the two of them split up to search the aisles. 

Lavi was forever grateful that the store was opened all day and night, not only because he tended to sleep at unusual hours, but because this time, the trip to the store was for something useful, to cheer his roommate up, and not many stores were open at that hour. They had the type of snacks that Lavi had noticed Allen eating almost at every opportunity. If that didn’t work, Lavi was ready to just lie down on the floor and feel sorry for himself for the next five days.

He managed to find the snacks and he struggled to keep them all in his arms while he walked slowly through the store, searching for Allen. Maybe it would have been a good idea to get a bag. 

He found Allen looking through various cans of soda, crouched and analyzing the price tags with an almost manic glint in his eyes. Lavi had to wait for a moment when Allen turned his head and saw the aisle of alcoholic drinks. The redhead backtracked and almost slammed on the shelves, trying to contain the laughter rising up his throat at the stingeye Allen gave the bottles from his position on the floor. After some tense moments of Allen trying to disintegrate the bottles with the power of his glare alone, Lavi decided that he had his laughter (mostly) under control and stepped out from his hiding place. 

“Hey, Beansprout,” he called and oh, wow, now he was in the receiving end of the ‘glare of death’ that had the same intensity as the one Kanda used almost constantly. “I got the snacks. You made up your mind with the drinks?”

“Uh, yeah,” mumbled Allen and reached out for a random pair. He stood up with the grace of a cat and Lavi wondered for the millionth time if Allen had been some sort of world-famous acrobat. “We have everything, then?”

“Yep,” answered Lavi, cheerful, and he skipped down the aisle, his grin widening at Allen's chuckle. The mission ‘cheer up Allen’ had been a success. 

He dumped all the junk food on the counter with an exaggerated groan and Allen placed the drinks next to it, like a civilized human. Lavi searched his pockets for the money he had stuffed there just before they had left the house while his companion looked around, silver eyes curious. 

It was when they were stuffing all the food into a single bag that the glass door slammed into the wall from a brusque kick. 

Lavi turned immediately, heart jumping in his throat, eye glaring to the pair of teenagers that entered the store. Oh, great, they were the typical punks, clothes full of chains and belts and dark makeup covering their faces. The one with black hair led them to the counter and the blond one wobbled to one of the aisles.

Lavi huffed, irritated, and opened his mouth to tell them off for almost destroying the door, but a firm hand clasped his arm in a tight grip and he faltered. He tilted his head, frowning, and looked back at Allen, ready to ask him why he had stopped him, they clearly deserved it, even more now that they were basically shouting at the store clerk so he would give them some alcohol. 

But Allen's eyes were focused on the pair, white eyebrows almost touching, the warm silver now a cold steel that chilled Lavi to the bone. Allen's hand clenched harder on Lavi's arm and he almost flinched. 

“Don't,” murmured Allen, voice cold. “They are dangerous, Lavi. There's something dangerous around, I can feel it.”

“What do you mean, dangerous?” asked Lavi, turning to Allen a little more, but not fully, just in case. 

He could feel it too, of course, the dark feeling that was floating around the place, like a dark cloud closing in on them and not letting them breath, predatory, _wrong_ , and the fact that Allen had warned him when last time, that time they'd seen the man, he'd only stared at him, was unnerving and put Lavi on high alert. 

The two teenagers (though Lavi wasn't sure if they were _actually_ teenagers) snatched the bottle of alcohol from the clerk’s nervous hands and slammed the money on the counter. Lavi was pretty sure that it wasn't the right amount, but he didn't blame the guy for not saying anything. 

When the two walked out from the store, Lavi let himself sigh and relax his shoulders. He was pretty sure that those two had been some magical being, but he couldn't, for the life of him, figure out what they were. Then he paused. Allen hadn't let go of his arm. 

“Al, what…?” he didn't get to finish his question, before Allen had stuffed all their food into the bag and started walking to the door, dragging Lavi by his arm after him. “Allen, what do you think you're doing?!”

“Isn't it obvious?” said Allen, and Lavi blinked, surprised and confused for a moment, as the angel continued dragging him until they were standing in the middle of the empty street under the dim yellow glow from the streetlights. “I'm going after them.”

“Okay, wait, hold on a moment,” grumbled Lavi and he tried to snatch his arm back, but Allen wouldn't budge, so he sighed. “Didn't you just say that they were dangerous?”

“That's why we couldn't have confronted them _in_ the store,” explained Allen, still looking around with a sharp and determined gaze. Lavi grimaced. They shouldn't confront them _at all_. But Allen turned to him, face pinched and Lavi paused. “Lavi, I felt something… It was similar to what I felt with that man, it was as if I knew them but… Something is urging me to go after them.”

Lavi was about to say something, maybe ‘oh yeah this is _still_ not a good idea, Allen, let's just wait and think, okay?’, but he closed his mouth with a click. There was something… lurking around them. Something dark. But he was pretty sure they weren’t those eccentric teenagers, it didn’t feel right, it was like…

“Those are…” mumbled Allen and, before Lavi could ask what he meant, Allen lunged for him and shoved him away…

...Just before a giant claw ripped the street apart where they’d been standing seconds before. 


	5. Fifth Star

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (This chap will have art)

Lavi could only stare at the deep cuts on the street as Allen rolled off him and jumped to his feet in one fluid motion that Lavi would have commented on how cool it had been if he wasn't, well, on shock, because what the actual fuck? 

“Lavi, stay behind me,” grumbled Allen, voice serious. 

Lavi wasn't sure if he had answered or if he had made a weird sound, he was too preoccupied watching the… Monster in front of them. It had to be a monster, because no animal had those long claws, and no human had those bended legs and no creature had that many teeth, it was so repulsive, it made him want to run and wipe his memory. 

He didn't realise he had been shaking until Allen had kicked him on the shin and he was plunged straight into the present, gasping and trembling and with his eye still staring into the… the… 

“Lavi, c'mon, you can't space out like that now,” groaned Allen from in front of him, knees bent and arms ready by his sides. 

“What the heck is that?” snapped Lavi, and maybe it was too loud, but he didn't even care if he hurt the thing’s feelings, it was fucking ugly. 

“It's a demon,” said Allen and Lavi paused. Oh. Of course. It made sense. 

“Are you…” Lavi stumbled over his own words, “...you know, gonna kick his ass or somethin’?”

“I can,” answered Allen and, okay, at least one of them was confident enough not to tremble like a leaf and actually fight this thing. “But I need a weapon.” 

“Okay,” said Lavi, dumbly, and Allen turned his head to him, white eyebrow raised. Expectantly. Lavi blinked. “What?”

“I need a weapon, Lavi,” repeated the angel, and Lavi frowned. 

“Okay, yeah, well, I don't know why you're looking at me,” he said, somewhat irritated, but Allen kept staring at him, the exasperation in his now cold steely eyes climbing to new record levels. “I don't go shopping with weapons under my belt, Allen. I don't have a gun in my underwear, I don't have a knife in my shoe, I don't-”

“You're an _Alchemist_ , Lavi,” interrupted Allen. 

Oh.

“Okay, that makes sense,” mumbled Lavi, lowering his gaze to the cracked street. Okay, that made him look really stupid, if only Kanda were there to laugh at him, he wouldn't let him live it down for _years_. 

A hand reached out and took hold of the collar of his red t-shirt, and Lavi clenched his jaw, trying not to scream like an idiot as the hand pulled him along. A dark blur shot past him and moments later he was dropped unceremoniously onto the floor some feet from where they had been previously, gasping and choking back his fear, because holy shit, what was that? 

“Allen, care to explain what…?” Lavi trailed off, mouth falling open. Allen huffed, clearly irritated, glaring at the demon, which was now sharpening his claws on the ground like some oversized cat. 

But that was not what made Lavi pause. 

No, it was Allen. 

Allen, his companion, his roommate, the guy that had become basically his best friend in the span of weeks and who was surrounded by mystery… was now surrounded by  _ light. _

No, it was not light. 

They were _ wings _ . Beautiful and large wings that glinted a soft gold under the artificial light coming from the street lamps, with the same golden feathers that Lavi himself had collected from his garden, the same feathers that he'd used to sign the contract. 

“Lavi, I need you to make me a weapon,” said Allen, voice soft but clear, and Lavi fought _very hard_ to focus. He couldn't say his brain was cooperating much, though. “I'll hold it back, but I don't know for how long I’ll be able to.”

And with that, Allen flexed his enormous wings, gold feathers turning threatening, like spikes, before taking flight with a strong beat. 

Lavi stared after him, mouth still open, sitting like an idiot in the middle of the street. Allen charged against the demon and the redhead couldn't help but notice that the golden feathers hugged his collar,  a soft mane, a spiky scarf of gold, something a king with the world at his feet would wear. 

“Right, weapon,” mumbled Lavi and raised his hand. He hesitated for a moment, before slapping himself. He groaned. “At least it worked.”

He immediately stood up, legs shaky because of the adrenaline coursing through his veins, heart thumping painfully in his chest, hands shaky. His eye gazed over the empty street, panic rising with each second. What could he use? Maybe a street lamp? Some part of a nearby car? Some piece from the cracked ground?

“Allen, what weapon do you prefer?” he shouted and he heard Allen grunt before a thump that shook the ground nearly made Lavi smack against the steel railing he had been running to. 

“Whatever!” shouted the angel, and Lavi rolled his eye. 

“I mean, like, close range?” he asked back, impatience clear in his voice. 

“Close range is good!” answered Allen, and Lavi braced himself against the railing. 

Okay, now, what could he do? Spear? Dagger? No, he had enough steel to be able to make a sword. If he calculated everything okay, which he always did, he should be able to make… A broadsword? Maybe. He'd try. 

His hands were still shaky, so he ended up closing the fingers of his other hand around his wrist while he used a piece of concrete to draw on the floor. His lines were uneven, definitely not his best work, but it would have to do. He tried to make the alchemic circle as fast as possible, eye focused on his work. He ignored the sounds of the fight, how the demon howled and how Allen beat his wings from time to time. 

When Lavi finished the circle, he exhaled, shoulders dropping from the tense position they had been in, and he took hold of a part of the railing. He closed his eye and breathed in. And out. In. Out. 

The railing changed under his palms, the material shifted, its form wavered until what was a railing before was now a sword. A broadsword, really. Lavi let the air out from his lungs, slowly, carefully, like he'd done so many times before, and he opened his eye. 

The broadsword wasn't his best work, its edges rugged and handle not quite how he had imagined it, but he hoped it would be useful to Allen, nonetheless. He sighed. 

“Now, then…” he mumbled to himself as he turned to the fight, broadsword firmly on his hands, the uneven tip scratching the ground. “Allen, I have the weapon ready for ya!”

Allen, who had just evaded a swipe from the demon with an accurate jump, tilted his head to gaze at him with sharp eyes and nodded slightly. 

Now the problem was giving the sword to Allen. Lavi didn't really want to get close to that thing. It wasn't that he was weak, excuse you, he was a pretty decent fighter, he had to be. It was just that… Giant monsters weren't really his specialty. He much preferred humanoid opponents, thank you very much. So, he couldn't just run towards Allen dragging the heavy sword behind him, that would get him killed far too easily. Maybe he could throw it? 

“Lavi, throw it!” Oh, yeah, Allen wanted to go with that plan. Lavi sighed, looked down at the sword, then shrugged. 

“Where?” he called back and Allen twirled in the air to avoid getting crushed. He was silent for a moment; whether that was because he was busy dodging the demon's claws or because he was thinking, Lavi didn't know. 

“Up!” shouted Allen and Lavi jumped, hands scrambling with the handle of the sword. It nearly slipped from his hands, but he managed to get a firm grip on it, before raising it from the ground without too much difficulty. “Now!”

Lavi was quick to do as told and threw the giant sword upwards, just as Allen beat his wings to fly above his companion. Lavi made sure Allen had it, watched the angel twirl it until he could hold it in its correct position, before scrambling back and against the wall of a house. He frowned. 

Nobody had come out from the nearby houses. There were usually magical families which lived around the area, and that they'd seen a demon was reason enough not to go out and hurriedly help them. But Lavi also knew that there were normal families around, and those were the problematic people. They were curious, always up for a mystery, even if that mystery ended up terrifying them and getting them into trouble, and they would surely come out from their safe houses and investigate what that giant monster was…. Except they hadn't. 

The street was empty, excluding the fighting angel and demon and Lavi, of course. But nobody else was around. The store where they'd been shopping before looked exactly the same, Lavi could see the clerk with his feet up on the counter, tapping at his phone, oblivious to the epic showdown that was going on just in front of him. 

Lavi risked a glance at the fight, grinned when Allen managed to cut the demon's leg off, and walked cautiously towards the shop. He frowned. Was it a barrier, perhaps? 

He crashed headfirst into something. Something hard. And invisible. Of course. A barrier. He should have seen it coming. Except he didn't because, hey, it was invisible. 

He frowned, expression once again serious and thoughtful as he rubbed his nose, which had taken the brunt of the stupid hit. He reached out with a hand. Lavi stared at the ripple caused by his hand, a silver glint that shimmered for a moment before fading into the night. 

Those kind of barriers were usually created from the outside. Lavi knew that much, even if he wasn't an expert in magic, as he'd said many times in the past weeks. Then again, those barriers… Only noble families were strong enough to perform the spell for them. So this attack was planned… 

There was a crash, a loud growl, then a gross sound that Lavi wanted to forget immediately, and finally, silence. Lavi sighed, then tensed again when the barrier trembled under his hand. 

“Lavi?” called Allen and Lavi turned his head to him for a moment, before focusing on the shaking barrier again. Was it collapsing, or getting stronger? He was pretty sure that the demon was supposed to kill them, would they get trapped in the barrier forever, now that they had defeated it? That… would be a problem. “What…?”

“There's a barrier around here,” explained Lavi, and Allen, now by his side staring at the barrier, frowned. 

“Is it collapsing?” asked Allen, voice tinted with concern. Lavi paused. 

“I don't actually know.” He turned to grin at his companion, lips shaky and eye worried. “We have to wait and see.”

Allen didn't look too enthusiastic about it and, to be honest, Lavi couldn't blame him. He still had the rough broadsword by his side, its blade streaked with blood, a color that Lavi couldn't make out in the dark. The sleeves of his black jacket were ripped and singed, and when Lavi noticed the splatters of blood on him, his heart skipped a beat. 

“Are you hurt?” he asked softly, looking at Allen carefully, ready to take in all signs of discomfort he could show. Allen blinked. 

“Not really,” he said and Lavi watched like a hawk as the angel sighed and shifted his weight from a foot to the other. He didn't look in pain, but his enormous wings obscured his back and Lavi couldn't be sure that Allen wasn't injured. 

“Ya sure?” pressed Lavi and he couldn't help but smile when Allen rolled his eyes. 

“Positive, mom,” said Allen with a voice dripping with sarcasm. Lavi laughed heartily. Yeah, he was probably okay. Allen flapped his wings for a moment, still staring at the barrier with distrust and some worry. “Should we revert this back to what it was before?”

Lavi blinked, confused for a few seconds, before his companion nodded to the sword still in his hands. He hummed. He could revert it back to the railing, but… 

“Let's just take it home,” he said, grin turning mischievous. “I can make it a beautiful broadsword for you to kick demon ass.”

Allen was starting to get how his head worked because he just shook his head with a soft sigh at his idea. He relented, though, so that was a win for Lavi. 

The barrier stopped trembling and Lavi, who had lowered his hand, focused his intent gaze on it. Allen frowned at it, raised his hand to touch it, but Lavi stopped him with a gesture and the angel's hand paused just before touching the surface. 

Then the barrier cracked. Branches and branches of silver ran through the air and the sound of glass breaking echoed through the empty street, startling the two of them. The barrier collapsed around them, the pieces of silver and white light falling to the ground like snow and disappearing from existence. Lavi blinked. 

“We are free, then,” he said dumbly and Allen huffed. The angel slapped his arm and started walking down the street, sword in hand. 

“Then let's go home,” grumbled Allen. His wings flapped again, in what Lavi supposed was impatience, and the redhead chuckled. “I reek of demon blood.”

He found their snacks and drinks untouched behind a tree and he let out a sigh of relief. At least they still had what they had bought. Lavi was sure that Allen would be that guy who complained about having wasted money because of a stupid fight and, while it would be funny to see, Lavi was mostly tired and just wanted to go home and collapse on his bed. Then again, they had a new clue. That was good. 

The redhead hurried to his companion’s side, just as Allen's wings faded into a golden powder that floated around the air for a few seconds before dispersing. Lavi blinked. Allen looked like a human again. With rugged and dirty clothes, and a huge sword by his side, but a human nonetheless. There was no trace of his wings, no hole on his back, no destroyed clothes, just some golden glitter on his shoulders and a few feathers stuck on his hair. 

Lavi tried to make small talk while they walked home, but Allen didn't really talk much, he only gave a word or two as answer to Lavi's questions. Lavi himself was tired, so after a few rants about different ideas for the broadsword, one more absurd than the last, he fell silent and focused on dragging his feet towards his house.

It seemed like a year until they reached the house. Lavi felt a little offended that everything looked as if nothing had happened, because honestly, Allen and him looked like shit. 

Allen left the broadsword leaning against the kitchen counter, entered his room to find some clean clothes and locked himself in the bathroom, leaving Lavi alone in the middle of the house, looking as if he would drop asleep right there and then. He managed to get to the couch before he face-planted on it with an exaggerated groan. 

He could hear the sound of the water running in the shower and the stray cars driving through the night by his house, but even though those sounds were usually calming for him, he just couldn’t fall asleep yet. It was weird, he mused, and closed his eye harder. Then he sighed. He couldn’t fall asleep, alright.

The thing was, the barrier had to be set up by someone. Someone that was not inside with them, which ruled out the demon itself, nevermind that the demon looked too stupid to do anything that was not eat people and drool all over the street. That led to, maybe, a possible enemy. Now, who could it be…?

Lavi jumped and sat upright on the sofa, eye wide open and mouth slightly ajar. That was it! Yes, yes, there was no other reason.

He stumbled from the sofa to the bathroom door, a wide grin on his face, sleep probably forgotten in some corner of his mind. 

“Allen!” he called, then skidded to a halt as the door opened and the angel almost crashed into him. Lavi blinked. Oh, wow, Allen had different hues of grey in his eyes, it was as if he had stormy clouds on them, he was almost expecting lightning to cross his irises… 

“Lavi?” called Allen and Lavi came crashing down from those clouds to the ground, stuttering and stepping to the side to let Allen take his dirty clothing to the laundry basket. The angel did so with a confused glance at the nervous redhead. Lavi liked to think that the red on Allen’s cheeks wasn’t because of the red of the shirt in his arms, it gave him some hope. Then he paused. Wait, was he-? “Lavi? What are you doing?” A sigh. “You were so excited about something just a moment ago and now you’re staring at the floor?”

“O-oh, yeah,” stuttered Lavi and his mind backtracked until it focused on the matter at hand again. He would have more time to think later, maybe… “I have an idea, Al. What if the demons and whoever put up this barrier are the reason of the kidnappings? And whoever put up the barrier could be one of those people that made you feel something.”

Allen looked considering and Lavi felt proud of himself, seeing as just a few seconds he’d been freaking out about seeing Allen’s eyes up close. Oh, that would be a problem, wouldn’t it? He was so screwed. 

“So, you think that those who put up that barrier were those teenagers?” inquired Allen, voice curious and an eyebrow arched. Lavi nodded excitedly. 

“Yep,” he said. God, he loved mysteries. “That could be why you can feel something around them. They’re probably mages, mages who use dark magic, that’s why we can feel something obscure around them and that could be why you know about magic.”

“I don’t  _ know _ about magic though,” mused Allen, and Lavi watched as the boy started walking up and down the living room. He always did the same thing when pondering something. It was such an endearing quirk. “I only find it familiar, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t tell you anything about it.”

“That’s not important, though,” said Lavi. “The fact that you had a dream about a piece of magic, that you can feel the dark magic flowing through the air, it has to mean that what we are searching for is related to it, right? And we’ve just been attacked by a demon and we’ve been locked inside a barrier that only a noble family of mages can possibly dream of create.”

“I guess… it makes sense…” mumbled Allen. Lavi grinned widely again.

“Of course. I’m a genius, after all,” he said and Allen shot him a doubtful glance, before chuckling.

“Okay, genius, you should go to sleep,” laughed Allen. “You look as if you’re gonna collapse at any moment.”

“Yes, yes, sir,” said Lavi, saluting to Allen with a lopsided grin that showed more and more how tired he was. He started walking to his room, eyelids heavy. He ended up stumbling through his books until he was in front of his bed and called, “If I don’t wake up at 3pm, you have my permission to drag me out of be-”

He paused. 

Then he reached out for the envelope that he was  _ sure _ had not been there before. 


	6. Sixth Star

Okay, so the letter was obviously a trap. 

At least, that was what Lavi thought, and Allen wasn’t saying that it  _ wasn’t _ , but he did say that they should check it out, which was bananas. Allen was bananas. His angel had gone crazy, he knew that there was a time limit somewhere. 

“I’m not going on a suicide mission, Allen,” he said, arms crossed, and maybe he’d have been more intimidating if he had not been upside down on the sofa, but who cares. Not him. 

“No, no, hear me out,” said Allen and he slurped the whatever kind of asian food he was currently eating, Lavi wouldn’t waste time trying to decipher the name from his position. “We go there, we see if the person who wrote this is insane, if they are we get out.”

“Oh, yes, that makes so much sense,” grumbled Lavi. “You know, if that person really is insane, there’s a pretty high chance that we die in there. Just sayin’.”

Allen mumbled something too quiet for Lavi to hear and reached out to take the letter again. Lavi didn’t need to read it again, he could remember it perfectly, as if he was reading it himself. Something about a good job hunting for clues, something about making sure that it was an angel who was snooping around, something about making sure  _ who _ the angel was and something about going to a house. Like he said, an obvious trap. 

“You do realise that maybe this is what we need to do to complete the mission, right?” asked Allen, giving Lavi a pointed glance. The redhead sighed.

“I know,” he mumbled, and he ignored how his heart sent a pang of pain. “That doesn’t mean I trust it.”

Allen hummed and silence fell around them again. Lavi continued sulking upside down on the sofa until he started getting dizzy and he had to sit down like a normal civilized person again. Then he sighed. They were walking in circles; he didn’t want to go and put themselves in danger and Allen, always relying on his instinct, thought that it could be worth a shot. 

“You know what?” said Lavi and Allen lifted his head immediately, frowning. Lavi nodded to himself. “I’m gonna call Gramps.”

“Uh?” was Allen’s reply, and Lavi almost cracked up laughing when he saw the angel staring at him with his mouth full of food. 

“Yeah, we aren’t going to change our minds, we need a third opinion,” explained the redhead with a sigh. He reached out for his phone and, after a slight hesitation, he started searching for Gramp’s phone in his contacts. “And I was gonna call him either way, so why not ask?”

Lavi still didn’t know how his grandfather would react to the whole situation, but at least Gramps wouldn’t (couldn’t) complain that he hadn’t told him anything if he got out of that mess. Oh, well, yeah, he hadn’t told him anything about the mess until  _ now _ , but hey, he was going to tell him, he was being responsible. Kinda.

Allen nodded at him and gulped down the food, staring at Lavi with something similar to wonder. Lavi took a deep breath, mumbled a few “okay”s and pressed the button. He bit his lip, looking anywhere but at his companion and his stormy eyes that could look into his soul. 

For one moment he thought that Gramps wouldn’t answer his call, if only because it wouldn’t be the first time that he had called just to annoy him, but then he did and Lavi was talking before even thinking of what he was supposed to say. 

“Oh, hey, Gramps, how’s it going?” There was a sigh from the other side of the phone. “I, uh, know that we’ve been on a job, like, not long ago. But…”

“What did you do?” asked the tired voice of his grandfather. It made Lavi pause and frown at the phone.

“What?” he blurted out. “I didn’t do anything!”

“You always call me when you get yourself in trouble,” explained Bookman and, okay, he had a point. “So, what did you do?”

“I, uh…” he trailed off and looked back at Allen, who was trying to tidy up the coffee table that was overflowing with papers and take-out bags and cups. He cleared his throat. “Okay, so, you remember that popular legend? The one about the angels?”

“The one that had you obsessed when you were a brat,” he said and Lavi rolled his eye. “Yes, I remember quite well. What are you implying? That’s just a  _ legend _ , Lavi.”

“Yes, yes, I know, it’s not real,” rambled Lavi and he started walking in circles behind the sofa, nervously looking around. He gulped. “Except it is.”

“...What?” Bookman’s voice sounded surprised and, although it was quiet, his voice almost sounded like a scream to Lavi. He took a deep breath. Better to just let it all out at once. 

“Gramps, I have an angel on my house,” he said, almost a murmur, turning his back to the boy in question. There was a prolonged silence between them in which Lavi could hear his grandfather breathing slowly. It didn’t really help him calm down. “Gramps?”

“Describe the angel, Lavi,” mumbled Bookman and Lavi frowned. Okay, that was not creepy at all. But it was his grandfather, the same old man who had basically raised him. 

“White hair, grey eyes, pale, about my age, maybe younger,” said Lavi, turning slightly to watch as Allen tied the full garbage bag. He frowned. “What does that have to do with anythin’?”

“Angels must complete a mission on this Earth,” continued the old man, ignoring Lavi completely. He was used to Bookman going on a tangent, though, so it was easy for him to catch up with him. “So, tell me, what is it?”

“Uh, yeah, about that…” Lavi turned around again and just decided to lean on the sofa. “He doesn’t remember anything about it. Like, anything. He only remembers his name, Allen, and he’s been having… dreams, I guess you could call them. They are like, clues to figure out what the mission itself is.”

“What do you have?” asked Bookman with an interested humm and Lavi felt himself relax. His shoulders fell and he almost sighed in relief. Bookman clearly believed him. And Lavi knew his grandfather better than anyone else, he was sure that Bookman knew something about the situation. He had done well calling him. Gramps took control of the situation quickly, took information out of him easily. It was normal to forget that the old man was an historian, that taking information out of people was his  _ specialty _ . 

“Right now? We just got a letter from someone telling us to go to a mansion to meet up with them, just after being nearly killed by a demon when we were locked in a noble barrier,” explained Lavi. The front door opened when Allen went out to take out the trash. Bookman hummed, deep in thought.

“Go to that mansion,” he said and Lavi jumped, having been staring into space. He frowned.

“It’s clearly a trap, Gramps,” he said, voice serious. If there was a reason to go to that mansion, as there clearly was, he wanted to know it. His grandfather never did anything illogical, there was always a reason. That was what he had nailed into his head. 

“It could be,” answered Bookman, but Lavi could hear the negative in his voice. It wasn’t a trap. How he knew that, Lavi didn’t know. Maybe he should have called his grandfather earlier. Then again, maybe he wouldn’t have said anything to him and let him struggle on his own. “But I doubt it. Just go, Lavi. This is the time to learn.”

“Okay, then,” sighed Lavi. “I’ll believe you.” He paused, hesitant, before mumbling, “you know something, don’t you?”

Silence. 

“Just try not to get into anymore trouble.” And the call ended. 

Lavi gulped, phone still glued to his ear, before sighing and lowering him arm. Allen entered the living room again, gaze curious but calm. 

“We’re going to the mansion,” said Lavi, still staring at the coffee table. His grandfather knew something, he probably knew Allen. How? He didn’t know, but…

“Really?” asked Allen, frowning, and Lavi nodded. He tilted his head.

“Gimme the broadsword, I’ll get it ready in a minute,” he said and reached out with his hand. Allen stared at him for a few seconds, trying to figure him out, but he shrugged and gave the sword to the alchemist. 

“When are we going?” said Allen noncommittally as Lavi examined the sword. 

“Right after I finish with this,” answered Lavi, voice calm and gaze still focused on the weapon. “Before I change my mind.”

He didn’t lose time and after a few minutes, the broadsword was smooth, its edge straight and its handle longer. It remained a silver color, even if Lavi had wanted to paint it in white and gold. He sighed. 

“You think we’ll have to fight?” asked Allen as the redhead handed him the weapon. He twirled it between his fingers, almost cutting the coffee table in half, before nodding to himself. Lavi shrugged.

“Better safe than sorry,” he said.

He didn’t know what kind of clothes he would have to wear. Should he go with his usual outfit? Maybe something more… ‘refined’? He ended up shrugging and taking whatever when Allen shouted at him to get a move on and threatened to cut his door in half. Lavi was starting to regret having given him the sword while he could use it against him. He should have stuffed it in the car. He should have done a lot of things. Like put a lock on the fridge. Wait, no, nevermind, Allen knew how to pick those. 

“Hold your horses,” grumbled Lavi as Allen walked quickly to the car and slammed the door after him. “Really, do you want to kick demon ass so badly?"

“I want to see everything clearly for once,” explained Allen and Lavi sighed softly. Yeah, he had a point. He still didn’t quite like it. 

The so-called mansion was on the outskirts of the city, where nature started winning against civilization and you became close with bugs. Lavi liked going through the outskirts when going to a job with Bookman, especially at night because he could always look at the stars, watch as more and more appeared as they left the city lights behind, like curious animals staring at something they hadn’t seen before. 

They headed for the wheat field after a few confusing minutes of driving around and some arguing, and Lavi was really close to just leave the car there and continue walking. He kept hitting his head against the ceiling and, even if he liked Allen’s amused smile, he didn’t want a bruise. 

As they got closer to the mansion, Lavi took note of the beautiful landscape around them, the lone mansion in the middle of the sea of gold, and the tree. There was a tree near the mansion, which was… weird? There wasn’t any other tree around. And it didn’t even have any leaves. Oh, great, he was over-analyzing a tree. A  _ tree _ . 

They left the car just in front of the mansion and they got out, careful, muscles tense and gaze focused. Lavi had a brief moment when he spaced out as he saw how Allen’s hair seemed to glow gold because of the wheat, but he slammed his leg on the car to get himself to focus. It was good that Allen was looking straight at the door. Then again… Why was he…?

Lavi turned around and looked at the front door too, heart jumping on his throat because, hey, they weren’t alone. There was a girl. She couldn’t even be on High School, she was probably 12 years old. Then again, she  _ looked _ like it, but was she really that young? Lavi didn’t want to think about it, least his head combusted. 

“So, you came.” Oh, she was definitely older than she looked. Lavi was willing to bet on it. Or maybe not. 

“Were you the one who sent the letter?” asked Allen and Lavi opened his mouth to tell him that ‘sent’ was a dubious word, because the letter had been  _ on _ his bed, not in his mailbox, but the girl was faster.

“Yes,” she sung and Lavi almost shivered. There was something… dark about her. 

Allen moved to go to her, steps determined, but when Lavi looked at his face, he saw how his white eyebrows furrowed and how his stormy eyes seemed to search the girl’s face. There was something there… sadness? No, it wasn’t that. Desperation? Not that either. Lavi struggled to figure out what was the emotion that drowned Allen’s eyes, taking a few steps towards his companion, hand reaching out for him. Then he froze. 

_ “Don’t interfere, Lavi Bookman.”  _

Lavi looked at the girl immediately, eye wide and hand trembling. That had been her voice, hadn’t it? He gulped. His heart sped up and his stomach churned. The darkness surrounding her seemed to get closer to him, he could taste it in the air, he could feel it hugging him. He choked on it, he lowered his head and raised his hands to his neck. It was  _ suffocating _ him. 

He knew they shouldn’t have gone there, God, he knew it. And now he was slowly losing his grip on reality, his eyelids dropped dangerously and he stumbled until he could lean on the car. He lifted his head so he could watch Allen. He hadn’t moved and inch. He was still staring at her.

Then the darkness receded violently, and he shook, throwing a hand so he wouldn’t fall on the ground. He braced himself against the car as he gasped for breath.

“Do I know you?” asked Allen and Lavi snapped his head up. The girl’s grin, so dark and menacing before, turned soft. 

“You do,” she said simply. Allen hummed. 

“Were we… close?” he asked and the girl took a step towards the stairs that separated them. 

“We were,” she answered. 

There was silence. When Allen talked again, it was soft, it was almost a murmur, a whisper that the wind carried with it.

“Was I… alive?” he asked. 

_ Ah. _

The girl’s eyes, golden, inhuman, closed.

_ That emotion that Allen’s drowning in is… _

“You were,” she answered.

_...Longing.  _


	7. Seventh Star

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this, my fic for the Big Bang is complete! It has been fun (even if it was kind of stressful because life happened and all) and I'll update it with my partner's art when it's finished!!

So his theory about angels had been correct. Lavi supposed he should have been proud or maybe even excited, but at that moment, he could only think about how he didn’t want this adventure to end.

The girl, who had finally introduced herself as Road, was leading them towards someone that would explain what was going on and what they were going to do. They had left the broadsword in the car after Road shook her head and, even if Lavi was wary of her, Allen seemed to trust her, so he begrudgingly locked the car with the sword inside.

The mansion was pretty, alright, all bright lights and expensive furniture. There were paintings hung on a lot of walls, but Lavi got bored of staring at the people dressed in extravagant clothes and decided to focus on his companion. 

His companion, his friend, Allen, who had just learned that he had been  _ alive _ . Did that mean that Road was part of his family? It made sense. His mission was tied to his family, to something he knew himself. Then again… How did Allen die? Lavi had thought that Allen not knowing anything, not remembering anything from  _ before _ , had been cruel but… maybe it had been a small mercy. What would have happened if Allen remembered his own death? Nothing pretty, he was sure. 

Someone tapped on his shoulder and he whipped his head up, making his neck crack. Allen was looking at him with worry in his stormy eyes and Lavi gulped, ignoring the ache in his chest. How much longer did they have together? How much time would he be able to talk with the angel, how much time did he have with his friend? Why the heck did thinking of Allen as friend hurt?

“You’ve been pretty quiet,” whispered Allen. Lavi tried not to meet his eyes. “Is something wrong?”

“No, not really,” mumbled back Lavi, eye looking everywhere but at Allen.They were standing in a spacious room, a living room, maybe, with furniture that had to cost much more than what Lavi would be able to get in all his life. Road was gone, he realized, so it was no wonder Allen had noticed him running around in circles in his own head. There was another painting on a wall and he walked to it, trying not to make it seem like he was running away. “Everything’s perfectly fine, Al.”

Then he paused. And he sucked in a breath too quickly, so quickly that he choked on it and he doubled over and started coughing. Allen hurried to his side and laid a hand on his back, talking, but Lavi couldn’t understand what was being said, because, just,  _ holy shit _ .

_ That’s Katerina. Katerina Campbell. These are the Campbells. Allen is a Campbell. Allen was the family member that died. Allen’s death had been the tragedy that made them leave the other house. _

The Katerina in the painting was just as Lavi remembered her, with dark hair tied in a beautiful bun, streaked with grey, long dress and smiling eyes. And by her side, that was… Nea. Nea Campbell. The youngest twin. And the oldest twin… Lavi had never met him, he was always away, with… maybe Allen? Was Allen his son or something?  _ Oh, God _ . 

“Lavi?” asked someone, and Lavi turned around so fast that he almost slammed into the coffee table. Thank God for Allen and his inhuman reflexes, because the angel gripped his shoulders and steered him towards the newcomer. And, yeah, that was definitely Nea, with his messy dark hair and witherin gold eyes that, instead of glaring at him, were staring at him in surprise. “What…?”

“Eh? You know each… other…?” asked Allen, but his voice faltered at the end. Lavi looked at him, suddenly concerned. Hey, hey, wouldn’t so many familiar people at once stress him out? What if he ended up remembering his death and having a monumental breakdown? Oh, no, oh, no. “Nea?”

Lavi was kinda prepared for Allen to clutch his head in pain and he managed to catch him before he tumbled down when his legs trembled. Kinda. He sat Allen down on the silky sofa and he hovered there for a moment, awkward and unsure, as Nea hurried over to them and looked over Allen with worry. 

“So it  _ was _ you…?” mumbled Nea when he got to Allen, looking over him with worry in his golden eyes. Lavi shuffled awkwardly on his feet when Nea focused on him next. Nea smirked. “Not a snotty brat anymore, Bookman?”

“Oh, ha ha,” groaned Lavi as he glared at Nea. Nea was… he wouldn’t say pleasant, because he wasn’t, at all, but Lavi could see he had strong morals and he loved his older brother  _ so much _ and… “Nea, why are we here? Is this because of the mission?”

“It is,” said Nea, smirk gone. His eyes looked sad. Lavi opened his mouth to ask, but Allen was the one to speak up.

“Is it because of Mana?” he asked, voice small, and Lavi wanted nothing more than to run away from there. With Allen, of course. “Is he…?”

“Let me explain,” said Nea, and his voice seemed maybe less forceful when he talked to Allen. Lavi wondered if they had known each other before… yeah. “Mana is my older brother. Our birth… I wouldn’t call it normal. Because of that, Mana became the… I guess you can call him the delegate of demons. He can control them, more or less. That is, if he is in his right mind at the time.”

Lavi blinked. Then his eye widened and he had to sit down on the sofa, side by side with Allen, who looked at him from the corner of his eyes, a small and sad smile on his face. 

“I am, was, Mana’s adoptive son,” continued Allen, and he closed his eyes. “We didn’t share blood or anything. He wasn’t always in the best place, he was… unfocused, forgetful, not always…  _ there _ .”

“But he cared for him,” mumbled Nea, head lowered. Lavi felt a pang of pain in his chest. “Still cares. So when Allen died… he became worse. And the demons started the kidnappings, the murders, and I couldn’t do anything, I don’t have that authority.”

“So...” Lavi gulped, throat dry as the desert but hands sweaty as the sea. “What exactly do we need to do?”

“It’s actually quite simple,” said Nea. He turned and pointed at a hallway… no, at a door. “Allen needs to make him see reason. Drag him back to reality, as much as it hurts him.  _ We need him back, Allen _ .”

And Allen stood up, head lowered, but shoulders set in a determined stance, ready for whatever may come. Lavi hurried to stand too, looking at Allen with concern shining in his eye, wanting to reach out for his arm but being unable to. He didn’t know why. Maybe it was the knowledge that his new best friend would disappear when all was done, maybe it was the believe that the angel was too blinding for him. 

“Let’s go, Lavi,” said Allen and Lavi startled. The redhead blinked and, the next second, Allen was enveloped by feathers again. “Let’s go see Mana.”

Lavi would have made a bad joke about being too soon to meet his parents, but the words didn’t come to his mouth. He was almost choking on his panic by that point. He didn’t fear death, as he would have imagined, no. He feared what would come after the mission, after Mana was back on track, after Allen had been successful, after… 

The hallway was lit by a soft golden light from the chandeliers hanging from the white ceiling, but Lavi could only gulp and stare at the door at the end of it. It was embroidered in more gold, it was a little excessive, it made his eye tear up, but he kept looking at it with such an intensity that he wouldn’t be surprised that it caught fire. Each step they took echoed around them, going back to his ears like a scream. His hands were trembling. 

“Here we go,” mumbled Allen and Lavi blinked, finding himself just in front of the door. He was behind Allen and some of his feathers tickled his face, but he paid them no mind. The angel turned to him, stormy eyes almost looking golden by the light, smiling and oh, gosh, he was going to miss him so much. “Mana might act violently, so I will need you to have my back.”

“Always,” blurted out Lavi before he could think it through and he almost slapped his hands on his mouth, but Allen’s smile turned even softer, his eyes shone with something Lavi couldn’t decipher, before he turned again and he opened the door.

The first thing Lavi noticed about the room was that it was a bedroom as big as half his house. White walls with golden flowers painted on them, a high ceiling with a enormous chandelier hanging from the centre and tall windows framed by black, and… a man. Middle-aged, black hair, stubble, crisp clothes… and wide golden eyes locked on Allen. 

“Al-” he started shouting, reaching out for his companion, but something hit him on the chest and he stumbled back. “What the actual-?”

There were… more feathers. But where Allen’s feathers were a soft gold that didn’t hurt the eyes, these were… a pure white. A pure white, and they didn’t come from a wing or anything, the came from… The man’s hand…?

“Lavi!” yelled Allen and Lavi shook his head, trying to get his mind to stop reeling and  _ help _ . He watched as Allen dodged a feathered whip. “Throw something!”

“Throw something, throw something, yeah, right, thanks, that really helps, oh, God, fuck,  _ me _ ,” mumbled Lavi as he moved back to the wall, hands scrambling for something to use, to convert, to help his fucking best friend. Or maybe more. “This is not. The. Time. You soggy carrot!”

“What?” called Allen from the centre of the room, and Lavi got hang of a candelabra, a piece of wood that he used to draw on the wall, he hoped they wouldn’t mind too much and, after a quick transmutation, half a dozen golden knives. 

“Knives incoming!” he shouted and threw them to the whips that were getting too close to Allen for comfort. His comfort.  _ Don’t you fucking touch him. _

Still, the… intervention, if they could call it that, was getting out of hand quickly. The window was smashed, the wall was a mix of alchemic circles and deep cuts made by the whips, half the furniture was destroyed, be it from Mana’s attacks or Lavi’s use. And Mana was crying. Lavi had made a double-take the first time he saw his tears. They were a deep red that streamed down his face. 

Allen tried valiantly to get closer to him, but it was easier said than done, because the whips tended to shove him back to the door when he got to close. Lavi could see from his perch near the wardrobe how Allen gasped for breath and how his silver eyes remained focused solely on Mana, shining with a fierce desperation Lavi couldn’t decide was admirable or heartbreaking. 

“Where the fuck is Nea when you need him?” growled Lavi as he ripped another shelf off the closet to make more wood daggers. “I thought he was as powerful as Mana.”

He jumped when there was a crash behind him and he turned, daggers at the ready, before pausing. Allen was on the floor. Allen was on the floor, struggling to get one of the whips off his arm without hurting himself. And more whips were getting closer. Lavi swore. 

His daggers stabbed some of them, but he wasn’t fast enough. He wouldn’t be fast enough. 

Oh, no,  _ no, no,  _ **_no_ ** .

He opened his mouth to scream, to yell at Allen that he would buy him food for the rest of his life if he got out of that. But he stopped. Something… something was getting closer. A soft sound, yes, but he knew that sound… 

“You stupid grandson!” Lavi jumped and turned to the door as thin needles stabbed the remaining whips. He grinned. Like an idiot. Because that was his Gramps. Kicking ass. Not his ass for once, that was a good surprise. “I thought this was supposed to be  _ your _ mission!”

“I’ll do your paperwork as thanks, Gramps!” yelled Lavi, eyes shining and relief coursing through his veins while Allen stood up again and looked at the paralyzed whips with something close to amazement. 

“Go now, Allen!” shouted Nea’s voice and Lavi blinked, surprised. So he  _ had _ been doing something useful. 

Lavi whipped his head to Allen immediately, breath catching in his throat. It was now or never. The mission was going to end and… Lavi shook his head. Allen could still need his help, he had to focus on the present. 

He watched as the angel ran, wings glinting in the light, eyes determined and steps strong, towards the crying man. Lavi almost feared that another whip would appear and hurt Allen, he was ready to take action and run to them, a new set of daggers by his side. But it didn’t happen.

Allen managed not to trip over the destroyed furniture and get close to Mana. Lavi hadn’t know him before the tragedy, before what he now knew had been Allen’s own death, but he could see how similar Nea and him were. Same curly hair, same pale skin, same golden eyes. 

When Allen approached him cautiously, as if Mana was a wild animal, the man seemed to finally recognize him, looking at him through the tears that drowned his eyes. Allen’s smile was full of melancholy and love and Lavi had to tear his gaze away from the pair before they embraced, feeling out of place, like an outsider. His heart hurt. 

Instead of staying around the two familiars, he walked slowly towards the door, where he could see his own grandfather talking with Nea in hushed tones. He moved around the furniture, transforming the weapons back to what they were before from time to time, mind blank and hands stiff. 

“So you were being useful after all,” he said when he got close enough to them. Nea turned his head to him, slowly, glaring at him with fierce golden eyes that seemed to glow. Lavi ignored him. “What are you doing here, Gramps? I mean, besides saving our asses.”

The old man sighed and Lavi prepared himself for a punch or kick or both. But Bookman just reached into the bag slung over his shoulder, searching around the objects inside it until he closed his tanned fingers around a roll of paper… oh, he knew that paper.

“The mission is complete,” said Bookman and Lavi tried not to flinch, but the knowing look sent his way made him hesitate. “This paper will be needed in order to acquire your wish… Do you know what you are going to request?”

Lavi opened his mouth, a half formed excuse about how he didn’t have time to think of anything, that he had some ideas floating around his head but none of them felt  _ right _ . And yet… and yet, he hesitated and closed it. Bookman arched an eyebrow. Lavi clenched his jaw and lowered his head, feeling like a child, as if he was back to being ten years old, a shy and quiet kid. 

“I… don’t know,” he mumbled, voice shaky, because his head was screaming the opposite. He knew. God, he knew what he wanted, but it was impossible, it contradicted the legend, he couldn’t.

“That’s a lie,” said Bookman, and Lavi did flinch this time, even if the old man’s words hadn’t been snapped at him, had been treated like a fact, because it was true, he knew. “If what you wish for isn’t possible… twist it until it is.”

“What…?” stuttered Lavi, looking at his grandfather with a frown. Bookman grabbed his arm and made him take the rolled piece of paper. Lavi had the urge to throw it from a window, to transform it into something else, to tear it down,  _ destroy it _ .

“Think, stupid,” said Bookman, but the bite was gone from the usual insult. Lavi blinked. “You have always been focused on the past, and perhaps it’s my fault for getting into your head how important history is… and it _ is _ important. Nevertheless,” Bookman turned to him and sent him an intense gaze that made Lavi stay completely still, heart hammering in his chest, “right now, you shouldn’t focus on it. Think of the future for once, idiot.”

And with that, the old man walked off towards the living room, Nea in tow. 

Lavi sighed heavily and slumped his shoulders, feeling lifelong tired. He didn’t look back at the destroyed room, didn’t look at the paper in his hand that seemed to weight a ton, he just started walking, letting his tired mind rest as his feet carried him to one of the rooms further down another corridor. 

It was as beautiful as the rest, but he could see that it hadn’t been lived in, it was almost abandoned. There were no clothes, no personal objects, no one around. But it had a balcony just in front of the door, just what he needed. He needed air, he needed to breathe, he needed to  _ think _ . So he walked to it, leaving the paper on the bed, not sparing it a second glance as he opened the glass doors to step out and take a deep breath of fresh air. 

The wheat field under him swayed with the wind, a sea of gold that covered the world as far as the horizon, where it changed into a light and quiet blue. He closed his eye. His hands, which had been gripping the railing so hard that his knuckles had turned white, relaxed until they were only resting on it. God, he was so tired.

He thought again of the old man’s words. He was still surprised that Bookman had been able to read him so easily, but then again, he was his grandson. Gramps had raised him and had mentored him until he was old enough to fend for himself, and even then they had been on some special jobs together. It was still kind of unfair that his grandfather knew him that well, and that Lavi still struggled to tell apart his mad face from his amused face.

‘Twist it until it is’. But how could he twist his wish to make it, so to say, ‘legal’? What even was his wish? To have an affair with Allen, the angel with whom he had been working with for the past weeks? To return Allen back to life? To remain friends with Allen, even if they could never see each other again and live in pain all his life? He panicked. How much time did he have to think about his wish? How much time did he have until Allen disappeared like an illusion? 

Twist it, twist it, twist… it…

“How much time have you been here?” asked a voice from behind him and he jumped, startled, almost jumping off from the balcony. He touched his chest with a trembling hand, heart beating too fast in his chest, and he turned around, opening his eye. It was Allen, smirking at him like all those other times, wings gone.

“Don’t do that, you’re gonna kill me,” he said with a shaky voice that, okay, he was grateful for that, because he didn’t even know if he was just startled or nervous. Allen’s smirk softened. 

“I’ll keep it in mind,” he said, then sighed softly and got closer to the railing. He crossed his arms on it, eyes gazing over the sea of gold. Lavi blinked. The sky was turning red and orange and… just how much time had he been there? They had arrived at the mansion after they had eaten lunch… “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“It is,” he blurted out and immediately turned his head to glance over the wheat. It wouldn’t really help his case if Allen caught him looking at him as if he was the stars while saying that something was beautiful. Yep. Bad idea. Then he paused. 

Oh, God, he’d been thinking of the wish… but he hadn’t taken into account Allen’s feelings. What if Allen didn’t want to stay? What if Allen didn’t want to have a whatever kind of relationship with him? What if…? 

“I don’t have much time left,” mumbled Allen and, if they hadn’t been enveloped by silence, Lavi was pretty sure that he wouldn’t have heard it. “This has been fun, you know? Even if I don’t remember anything about my time alive, I can still feel some kind of connection with them… like a family. But…”

“But?” pushed Lavi, curious and confused and hesitant, because maybe, just maybe, Allen wanted to stay. And that lifted some weight from his heart. 

“I don’t have a strong tie with this world anymore,” explained Allen, voice soft and sad and Lavi wanted to  _ hug him _ . “I would love it if my love for them was enough to tie me, but it isn’t.” Allen lowered his head and Lavi couldn’t endure more of that torture, so he slung an arm around his shoulders. “I want to stay with them again, I want to meet the family members I don’t know, I… I want to be your roommate, I want to go to so many more places with you, I want to see Lenalee and Kanda again, I want…” His voice turned to a soft whisper, carried by the wind, “I want to stay.”

Lavi remained silent, eye glaring at the darkening sky, at the tree in the middle of the gold, at everything. Because he wasn’t going to let Allen get away from him. Oh, no, he was going to be that annoying bug that followed you all afternoon. 

“What if… what if you had a tie?” asked Lavi, and Allen lifted his head up immediately, frowning. Lavi gulped. “What if I made you one?”

“What are you…?” Then he paused. And reconsidered. Allen hummed. “Maybe…?” Then he shook his head. “But Lavi, you can have anything  _ you _ want, it’s  _ your _ wish, not _ mine _ !”

“Hey, hey, now, don’t get mad at me!” whined Lavi and Allen’s eyes, alight with fire, softened slightly. Slightly. Lavi avoided his sharp gaze. “I told you that time that I didn’t know what I would wish for.”

“You said something about history-” started Allen, voice fierce and biting, and Lavi was even more confident than ever that Allen was a treasure. 

“Yes, well, that was a random gift that, honestly, kind of  _ sucks _ ,” interrupted Lavi and this time, he did focus his gaze on Allen’s eyes. “This is more important, Allen. Believe me that I wouldn’t say this if I didn’t mean it. I’m selfish like that, you see.”

Allen was quiet for a few seconds, silver eyes searching his own, mouth set in a thoughtful line and fingers clenched around the black railing. Lavi wanted to shuffle on his feet, but he couldn’t,  _ wouldn’t, _ budge.  _ Please, Allen _ .

“...Fine,” grumbled Allen, lowering his head again, and Lavi grinned like an idiot, even if Allen blurted out a sharp “but only if you are  _ really _ sure.”

“How much time do we have?” asked Lavi and he freed Allen’s shoulders to get inside, searching for the contract. Allen was silent. Lavi turned to him, trying to breath through his sudden concern. “Al, are you okay?”

“Not much time,” said Allen, quietly, and Lavi stumbled to the balcony again, contract clutched in his trembling hand. 

“Okay… okay, let’s do it,” he said and untied the cord around the paper. He hesitated. “Uh… what exactly do I say? Do I need to say some kind of epic speech or do I have to word the wish in some kind of way for this to work? Wishes need to be specific, right? I don’t want to-”

“It’s okay,” said Allen, voice soft but firm, and suddenly, his hands were on his arms, a beacon of clarity in his nervousness. Allen’s smile was radiating calm. “It will understand. Just say the wish.”

“It will understand? What is it, some kind of God up there or-?” He closed his mouth with a loud ‘click’ at Allen’s arched white eyebrow and he grinned shakily. “Right, wish.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I wish… for Allen to stay in this world. I wish for a tie that lets Allen keep living here with all of us and keep a watchful eye on Mana and the rest. Hey,” he grinned and his heart sung when Allen smiled back, eyes shining, “I’m actually doing you a favour. No more wild demons wrecking havoc around the world.”

Lavi almost laughed as Allen rolled his eyes, but the contract started dissolving in his hands, like Allen’s wings, like glitter sliding through his fingers and leaving a warm feeling behind. He blinked. Then he arched an eyebrow at Allen. His smile became even  _ softer  _ and Lavi felt as if he was melting. 

“It worked, Lavi, don’t worry,” he said and Lavi let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. Then he smiled sheepishly. 

“I’m sorry, but you won’t remember your other life,” he said. Allen shook his head.

“It’s okay,” he answered, eyes gazing over the landscape with an almost wise glint to his eye. “You know, I wasn’t actually a mage. I was just a normal human adopted into an eccentric family. At least, that is what Mana told me.”

“Oh, well, you can make new memories with them,” said Lavi, a small grin on his face. Allen chuckled. “You don’t know anything of this world, though. Isn’t that a problem for you?”

“It isn’t,” said Allen, voice a mere whisper, but then he draped his arms around Lavi’s neck, his faces getting closer than ever, and Lavi could feel his blush spreading through his freckled cheeks, staring at the sky reflected straight at him in Allen’s silver eyes. “It is okay, Lavi, really...” Then a smirk. “Why don’t  _ you _ show it to me?”

* * *

“Hey Al, my angel, can you lift me up so it looks like I’m flying?”

“Of course that’s the first thing you ask…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


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